An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe
by LogicalPremise
Summary: A mixed story/documentation piece describing much of the technology of the ME universe, including that which is only found in the Premiseverse. Some light language and a few morally questionable research descriptions. As with all my documentation type stories, this one is free to use by anyone who needs is.
1. Mass Effect Tech - Arrival

**_An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe:_**

* * *

 _A/N: I've been piddling about with this document since 2013, with notes even older than that. With all the new tech being shown in TWCD, however, it seemed like a good time to introduce a new segment._

 _This is a documentation story. That is, there are story snippets, and then documentation things. The timeframe for this just prior to Shepard being woken up._

* * *

The bulky, curved mass of Arcturus Station loomed up and around the transport as it slid into the mid-tier docking bay. The heavy thuds of the mag-clamps were accompanied by the soft chiming sound and the comm system kicking on.

"Welcome to Arcturus. For those of you getting ready to ship out for the first time, you'll be here a few hours before embarking on the SCV Glorua Ray, headed to Pinnacle Station for Zero-G acclimation and B accreditation. For the handful of you sticking around, wait in the transit lobby for the liaison officers to pick you up. The rest of you apes from the 405 might as well get some grub, we blew a secondary power relay in the jump and we're not going anywhere for a day or two."

Jason Vathez, newly minted Alliance Lieutenant, tugged nervously at the high collar of his uniform. The transport was filled with two groups of marine infantry - the green as grass Argentinian 664, heading off for basic training, and the feared and dreaded Lion's Roar heavy infantry of Mindoir, deployed on Earth as a reward for outstanding service and now headed back out to the frontier.

Neither group had officers along with them, just a handful of master chiefs, and the other few people on board - mostly techs - were also enlisted. Aside from the pilot, he was the only officer on board. His dress uniform was sharp, but the royal-blue trim on dark black instead of gold on gray showed him up as an officer of Alliance R&D.

At least, he hoped he would be. He watched soldiers slowly file off the ship through the wide cargo bay doors that split open in the back, while he picked up his kitbag and headed out the side hatch to the docking transit lounge, following the little knot of engineers in front of him.

The transit lounge, reached through a long narrow tubeway that showed only the ugly underside of Arcturus Station, was typical Alliance decor - flat black tile floors, plain white walls trimmed in Alliance blue, and a silkscreened Alliance flag hanging on the wall. Hard, unyielding black plastic seats were set in neat rows facing a pair of double doors, while the haptic monitor on the walls displayed the SA-8 comm channel.

Since the engineers were ignoring him - not to mention speaking in thick, Arcturian highlands rasta - he checked his omnitool for messages. More receipts from him selling the suite of rooms in the SoCal arcology, another angry rant from his ex-wife, this one full of threats to do something 'he would regret' - and a handful of confirmations from Alliance command about his posting.

Jason swallowed and deleted the message from his wife. His career - a researcher with the Sirta Foundation, with grants from the Manwell Foundation and Cord-Hislop - had come apart in a blaze of accusations and confusion as most of the work he was doing was found to be linked to the terrorist group Cerberus. He could still remember the Commissiarat investigation, the cool gaze of the black-coated figures as they examined logs, interviewed people in small, cramped rooms - and then shot almost all of his co-workers, his boss, and his uncle.

Summary execution for high treason.

Jason himself was put on observational restricted citizenship, and let go after six months. With no job and a tainted cit-card, finding work was almost impossible, but he scraped by. He did research for a few small biotech companies, boned up on his physics and chemistry by offering to volunteer teach at the inner city schola, and even did hours working in an electronics assembly factory.

His master's degree and patents didn't seem to attract any attention, even while his personal life disintigrated. His mother blamed him for some reason for the death of his uncle, and most of his social circle had been shot by the Commisars. His wife became more and more involved in 'soverign movements' and the nuts in the Earth First party, to the point where they argued constantly over it.

Finally, almost six months ago, he'd been contacted out of the blue by Alliance R&D. They had a curious discovery made on an outlying world and needed someone with heavy biotechnical, chemical and experimental science routines. By undergoing commissioning and working for the Alliance for eight year he would upgrade his citizenship to full class four, be entitled to move into full hab towers instead of merely sidepods, and probably be guaranteed his pick of positions at affiliated firms upon separation if he chose not to re-up.

With almost no cash left, a wife he no longer remembered why he married, and a ruined future, he took the plunge. Six months of heavy exercise, military training, and learning to shoot, wear armor, and the like had chiseled away the fat and softness from his body. He'd been able to send some money to his mother to help out with her bills, which had the effect of calming her down a bit.

Sherra was acting more and more erratic, and he divorced her upon graduation when she threatened to petition the Alliance not to commission him due to their marriage and her needs. The last bits of his old life had fallen away on the trip up here...and now all that awaited him was ... to meet his guide.

The double doors opened, and a strikingly handsome young woman walked through. Gently waved black hair was tied back in the usual savagely prim ponytail Alliance females preferred, the uniform she wore - that of an ensign - was spotless. Her dark grey eyes met his and she smiled gently, her darker features hinting at Indian and perhaps Chinese or Japanese heritage.

Her voice was a smooth contralto. "Lieutenant Vathez - did I say that right? I'm Ensign Courva. The Admiral is awaiting you at RDC Tower. If you'll follow me, I have an air car."

He nodded. "Lead the way. Uh, Ensign." He picked up his kit bag and followed, passing by the gaggle of rough-looking engineers without a word.

The air-car was the stock Alliance model - flat, lumpy and not at all exciting - and the trip there was mostly done in silence. He finally broke it once they were spirialling in for a landing. "So what do you do in R&D, Ms. Courva?"

Her lips curled in a bitter, self-mocking smile. "Secretarial duties for the Admiral. I spent six years in the Solguard, enlisted data transmissions specialist, so they moved me to OCS and put me here to handle the high-security comms stuff Admiral Vandafar needs for her work. Not very exciting, but I wouldn't know the first thing about how to do some kind of research."

He nodded, frowning as they came into an armored courtyard with a visible trooper with a sniper rifle standing on a platform. "This is, uh, some pretty damned high security."

She nodded. "This is the Hot Lab facility - that's why it's right up against the hull. Any failure of containment and they can jettison a lab straight out of the station and right into the sun. High security, high value." She landed the air-car smoothly, and triggered the doors. "The admiral will be in meetings, I expect, until at least two PM. I'd suggest going inside, finding a comfy chair, and reading this."

She handed him a code-locked, redlit optical data chip. "Primer on technology, mostly military related. Don't know if you were a brain surgeon, rocket scientist or eezo hound, so you probably want to read up on this stuff."

He took it gingerly. "Bioethical researcher, with a sideline in cybernetic integration, actually."

She quirked her lips. "Fancy way of saying you made sure we didn't make Frakenstein?"

He laughed weakly at that, and gestured. "Lead the way, ma'am." He followed her inside the building, framed by smoked-dark bulletproof glass windows and heavy armor shutters, and after settling into a leather couch set just inside the wing leading to the Admiral's office, opened up the OSD on his omni-tool.

* * *

 _ **ALLIANCE R &D BRIEFING MATERIAL**_

 _ **CLASSIFIED NOVA FOUR. EYES ONLY. R &D ONLY. **_

_**IF FOUND DO NOT CONTACT THE COMMISSARIAT - NOTIFY SA INTERNAL SECURITY SERVICES OR THE AIS USING EMERGENCY CHANNEL SA-332. COMMISSARS ARE NOT CLEARED FOR THIS MATERIAL.**_

 _ **THIS MATERIAL MAY CONTAIN REFERENCES TO AIS OR NAVAL INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS. THIS IS NOT TO BE SHARED OR DISCUSSSED OUTSIDE OF SECURE ALLIANCE SPACE.**_

Welcome, to Alliance Research and Development and to the salvation and protection of humanity.

There are four core technologies in use in the galaxy as a whole. Eezo, optronics, HE3 scoop mining, and omnipurpose generators and gels. To a lesser degree, kinetic barrier technology, cybernetic and bionetic enhancement, ion pulse technology, and the FTL comm buoy are also critical. There are of course many other important technologies - where would we be without things like the extranet - but R&D focuses on applications in military use, and these are the primary factors that affect that.

With the exception of eezo all of these technologies were mostly pioneered by a single species. Eezo was explored most heavily by the asari, but they also came up with optronic circuits. We humans revolutionized travel and FTL ranges with the HE3 hyper-scoop. Turians were the first to experiment with kinetic barriers, and the salarian invention of the omni-tool and omni-field was only surpassed by omni-gel. The elcor ion technology is the basis of almost all non-FTL engine drives currently used, and quarians have lead technology in cybernetic augmentation and kinetic barriers for centuries. Even the humble volus played a large role, with the clever invention of the FTL message drone (not to mention their love of missile propulsion technology and fuel efficiency.)

All of these technologies, with many others, combine to form and shape the military, economic and civilian sectors and the roles they play. While the Systems Alliance does not suggest that these technologies are _weapons_ in and of themselves, each one of them has applications to the Alliance in an economic and operational sense and must be considered strategic on some level. Likewise, even non-military applications of these systems can be turned against us by terrorists, both domestic and foreign, or even by unscrupulous companies seeking to derail or blunt humanity's ascent.

As an officer of the Alliance Research and Development Acquisitions office, it is expected that you will have a firm grounding in modern technology. Since RDA does not recruit scientists when we plan to send you into combat or into derelict ruins in some hellhole environment, however, it is expected that any such firm grounding will need to be conveyed to you by your training. You no doubt have critical skills that were important when you were selected (or invited) to commissioned office, but no scientist today can be truly omnidisciplinary.

This guide is the basic oversight for such training. The previous two years have seen a _tremendous_ shift in the application and innovation of military and commercial technology. Our own military has not been immune, as the Geth War has shown us fundamental problems in both our space and ground technologies. Alongside this has been civilian advancements in everything from FTL concepts to new types of energy production, and some of these have potential applications in terms of communications, science, or possibly terrorist uses.

All of these things – a basic understanding of the primary technologies, an overview of military weapons systems and a primer on how these will affect each and every member of the Alliance military, is the overarching goal in this guide. Given that some of this information was obtained by the AIS or other sources, it is considered **CLASSIFIED**.

Unlike other official SA training material maintained on SA-8, this guide is NOT rated or controlled by the Commissariat, and includes sections involving information that could reveal known actors or methods of Alliance intelligence gathering. As such, this guide is keyed directly to your omni-tool via DNA link and cannot be copied or sent to others. Penalty for the loss or distribution of any part of this guide outside of general commentary is chemical mind-wipe and reassignment to Z1 Restricted Citizenship for low treason.

This guide will cover eezo and mass effect technologies first, along with how these affect weapons systems, armor systems, and personal combat advances. This includes information about FTL and the Mass Effect on a basic level, and an overview of weapons, ammunition, and armor theory.

The second section will cover optronics, haptics, omni-technology and the rapidly evolving world combat engineering and infowar.

The third segment covers cybertechnology and bionetics, including blueware, black-ware, and nanonic implants.

The fourth section covers technologies that are civilian in nature but impact military considerations, such as HE3 mining, and FTL messaging and sensor systems.

Finally, a recap will cover a quick overview of both Alliance and alien primary and secondary weapons systems, armor platforms, battle-suits, mechs, warmechs, and articulated combat frames (ACF).

* * *

 **EEZO AND THE MASS EFFECT**

The basis for the vast majority of technology in the current state of development is reliance on the mass effect, provided by energizing a source of eezo. At its most basic level, eezo is a phase-shifted form of degenerate matter. By phase-shifted, that means it is somehow occupying space-time in a difference frame of reference, and at a lower vacuum state than the lowest vacuum state of our own reality.

This guide is a primer, not a college dissertation. The specifics of how eezo was formed, how it works, the strange and mysterious matter of its chemical composition, and the still unexplained aspects of dark energy and dark matter are not covered here. Local library resource, Multiwiki, and the Salarian Common Knowledge Framework Project can offer information on this if you are interested.

Without getting into detailed physics, eezo acts in three fashions. When applied to an unenergized circuit it can act as a power-source. When applied to an energized circuit it creates an area where mass itself becomes lighter or nullified. This not only affects the speed of light but how energy and matter are converted. (the m part of E=MC2). Finally, when incorporated into the nervous system of a living being it allows the use of biotics.

Eezo allows the creation of super-heavy armor and components that are light enough to be mechanically moved. It is the basis of all FTL and mass relay travel, and is critical in the use of biotics. Eezo is mostly found inside the remains of neutron stars and the aftereffects of supernovae. Most eezo mined is on worlds, but the largest known eezo mine is in a cracked asteroid known as Omega.

* * *

 **MASS EFFECT TECHNOLOGY**

Mass effect technology tends to fall into four different paths: FTL propagation and mass alteration, mass acceleration and negation, energy generation, and biotic application. For our purposes, we are unconcerned with biotics.

FTL travel is the primary use for almost eighty percent of all mined eezo. While mass relay travel in and of itself does not consume eezo, faster-than-light travel does. A typical military frigate uses between two and six pounds a year, a dreadnought twenty to thirty, and a superhauler might use up to a hundred pounds. (By comparison, during the span of their entire lives an asari will use up half an ounce of eezo in her body, and the entire air-car industry utilizes about a single ton a year across tens of thousands of air cars.)

Eezo is used in mass relay travel to form what is called a 'jump circuit' with the relay. The relay connects (via still unknown methods) two points in space with a hyper-efficient mass effect tunnel that reduces all matter within to what is theoretically zero or possibly negative mass.

From a physics standpoint, the ultimate effect is that it raises the speed of light by an enormous amount – roughly sixty to eighty million times the speed of light. For all intents and purposes relay travel is instantaneous. The eezo in a ship's mass effect core is used solely to stabilize the craft in the middle of this mass tunnel. A malfunctioning core will often cause very slight instability – magnified by the effect of the tunnel however, this is enough to turn a ship into quarks in a billionth of a second.

* * *

 **FASTER THAN LIGHT TECHNOLOGY**

FTL travel outside of mass relays uses the eezo core to lighten the mass of the ship and the area around it, much like a mass relay but with less efficiency. The energy differential this creates results in two important military considerations. First, since it compresses light (in terms of light from the affected mass bubble moving 'faster' in Einsteinian terms than light unaffected) it highly blueshifts ships in FTL. This blueshift is accompanied by a spray of high energy x-rays and other particle exotica known as a waketrail, and is easily detected by sensors using accelerated FLT return backscatter scanners. The second effect is a buildup of electrical charge from broken electron bonds, resulting in eventually having to discharge this buildup before it overloads electrical systems.

FTL drives are thus mostly measured by three factors: how much they can alter the mass bubble, which determines their speed; how much charge they build up per light year traveled, which measures their effective range, and how much power is required to move a given ship mass, which determines their stealth. A heavy cargo lifter with a high power, high speed engine is going to light up scanners like a Christmas lights parade.

A few alien races have made modifications to this. The salarian streaming core somehow uses the static electrical discharges to power ships systems, giving them extremely long ranges. Asari cores are vastly more efficient than any other races, producing very fast and powerful drives that can even perform short range 'jumps' like a tiny mass relay. Hanar ships utilize some form of Prothean-derived construction that effectively sublimates their blueshift signature to almost nothing, although range suffers badly.

The main human innovation has been the use of multi-tiered shells of suspended eezo inside magnetically managed arrays. Known as cascade cores, these were pioneered on the SCSA Endeavor and first put into production on the SR1 Normandy. The oversized core allowed for unparalleled agility and mass regulation, at a cost in endurance and eezo consumption.

* * *

 **MASS ACCELERATORS**

Eezo is used to form the mass accelerator rail systems that are incorporated into all weapons aside from some used by the elcor. At its very basic level, the mass accelerator is a two-phase operation. One phase accelerates a target (a bit of metal, a particle packet, or what have you) to a very high rate of speed by nullifying its mass. The second phase shifts this mass back to the pellet right at the moment it exits the barrel of the weapon. This is different than the mass accelerator weapons on star-ships, which are large enough to not need to reduce the mass of what they fire.

As a result, within five thousand meters, mass accelerator weapons are the most deadly possible form of firearm. No chemical compound or gyro-jet system can match the sheer acceleration rate for the given space and volume.

Additionally, only very tiny amounts of matter (typically 1mm to 3mm) are required to project a lethal impactor. The basic Avenger rifle fires a kinetic-stabilized dart of nickel-iron with a bore of 1.8 mm that hits as hard as a pre-Iron Era superheavy machine gun. A heavy weapon, like a Sabre rifle or Phase Six Automag, fires a fin-stabilized shaped titanium flek with a bore 2.5mm that can punch through a half-foot of case-hardened steel or blow a limb off with even a glancing hit.

The main advantages of mass accelerator weapons are five-fold. The ammunition used is either sourced from the surrounding air or from large capacity ammo blocks, meaning ammunition is rarely if ever a concern. This is perhaps their largest advantage, as even units deep behind enemy lines with no way of supply can at least fight.

Eezo powers all other components and thus the weapon does not need an external power source or battery. Again, from a logistics viewpoint this is a massive advantage.

With the exception of the shaver/loader/shaper (based on what ammo is used) and the trigger mechanism, there are no moving parts within the assembly itself, cutting down on jams and maintenance. Given the complexity of the weapons, this is equally important, as lack of maintenance derailed the Iron Guard during the Age of Iron more than once due to finicky laser weapons.

The weapon barrel is not a solid piece and this allows the weapons to be compacted and folded into a more easily carried shape. This allows for spies, agents and others to more reliably sneak into enemy areas with concealed weapons.

Finally, these are not combustion weapons – they work underwater, in vacuum, and in inert atmosphere.

The main drawbacks of mass accelerator weapons are threefold. Friction and heat do not go away simply because mass does. The more the weapon is fired, the more heat is built up, and eventually the weapon becomes hot enough to explode or deform the rail. To manage this heat, traditionally a set of internal sodium head sinks were used, with air-cooling on larger weapons. After the Geth War, this has been augmented by the inclusion of disposable droplet heat-sink reservoirs in an ammo-clip like container, but even with no clip all weapons can fire, albeit more slowly.

The second key drawback to mass accelerator weapons is that in order to manage all aspects of the field and firing mechanism, computer technology is required, some weapons even needing an onboard VI. This makes them vulnerable to infowar attacks that can jam, disable or even detonate the weapon and is a constant threat.

The final weakness, and perhaps the most critical from a scientific and R&D point of view, is that they do not scale well, in terms of efficiency or power, either to very large or very small sizes. Past a certain point the technology cannot be miniaturized, and there are very few hold-out designs (or weapons built into cybernetic limbs) that can even penetrate basic armor. Likewise, the damage produced by larger weapons above mech-shoulder mount rail-gun size is certainly devastating, but the heat cost and eezo required to build a rail of that size are simply too expensive to be workable. This is why tanks, very heavy mechs, and heavy gunships utilize non-mass effect weapons more often than not.

* * *

 **MASS ACCELERATOR WEAPONS**

Each species typically has their own spin on mass accelerated weapons technology, usually either in the ammunition used or in the method of acceleration. There are six primary classes and three secondary types of weapon you will typically see on the battlefield.

The pistol, heavy pistol, and heavy repeater are functionally the same weapon, each one firing heavier shots than the last. All of them are semi-automatic, laser-sighted, sidearms, designed to penetrate armor at close range and in a pinch act as a makeshift club. They typically have good heat management levels. Pistols generally have poor shield penetration and beyond medium range are inaccurate except in the hands of specialists such as salarians, who are expert pistol shots, and hanar, who can use multiple pistols at once with good accuracy. Asari also favor pistols, as it leaves a hand free for biotics or a warp sword.

The light machine pistol, submachine gun, and pattern gun are, again, variations on the same theme. These are lightweight weapons with a very high rate of fire and some level of recoil, designed to tear down shields at short to medium ranges, usually in conjunction with grenades or a second team member using armor-breaking weapons. SMG's are inaccurate and go through both ammo blocks and heat capacity devices or heat-sink levels very rapidly. Useful in firefights at close range, they are most favored by vorcha, hanar and the occasional eccentric volus who actually picks up a weapon.

Shotguns and warcannnons are close combat weapons systems that typically rely on more than one rail system to deliver a cloud of rounds. The primary difference is the shotgun breaks a blast into small pellets, while a warcannon is functionally a multibarrrel weapon that fires its shots all at once. At close (or melee) range these weapon are devastating, capable of cracking both shields and armor in a single shot and maiming or outright killing a target. Some have burst fire capability. Most weapons of this class perform poorly outside of short range – unless they have the capacity to reform their blasts as a solid slug. Humans have had a love affair with our shotguns for centuries, but krogan, turians and asari also utilize them heavily. Their main drawback aside from range and noise is that they consume ammo-blocks voraciously.

Light rifles, battle rifles, heavy rifles, and combat rifles are four variants of the same weapon, a mid to long range firing platform in semi-automatic or fully automatic fire mostly used by military forces. The Avenger Mark III is the Alliance's basic battle rifle, while the Alenko Light Rifle is used by biotics and engineers. All of these rifles are designed for battle at range, incorporating aiming aids and other features such as underbarrel weapons or omni-bayonets for combat outside the norm. They are considered middle of the road in accuracy, range, heat usage, weight, and damage. Typically speaking the lighter rifles are faster firing and better at stripping shields, while heavier rifles rely more on phasic rounds and are better against armor. Hanar are the only race that rarely if ever uses these weapons.

Marksman rifles, anti-materiel rifles and sniper rifles are the long to extreme range arm of choice. These typically fire curved 'wire snip' shaped pellets or otherwise larger, heavier round than other weapons, but each type has its own specific purpose. Marksman rifles are mostly used by designated marksman to pick off officers and other units of note in a line of battle, or to extend the range of a unit's envelope of fire. Sniper rifles are used by scout/snipers and typically are given target profiles to find proactively instead of reflectively. Anti-materiel rifles are used specifically to destroy equipment and ordinance instead of infantry – this include mechs with armor sufficient to stop infantry weapons as well as light gunships. All rifles of this type have extreme range and accuracy, and are usually not automatic due to the need for accurate fire. Some include built in drone spotting equipment or other features to improve accuracy, but are very bad in terms of heat generation and cannot be used in close combat. Turians and salarians have developed the best and more advanced sniper rifles.

Light machine guns, heavy machine guns, and squad assault weapons form the final tier of primary weapons. Most are composed of either a rotary or multi-stage accelerator rail system to allow extremely high rates of fire, along with mass effect provided stability and shock absorption to keep the weapon on target. LMGs are more tasked for suppressive fire and counter-firing on sniper units, while SAW and HMG weapons are designed to carve apart heavy infantry units or super-heavy units such as krogan infantry or elcor chargers. A machine gun is not a weapon that is accurate or designed for a firefight – in fact, in most cases only those with cybernetic augmentation or advanced biotics can even lift and fire such weapons without the aid of power armor or a weapon mount. While these weapons generate copious amounts of heat, they are large enough to feature equally large heat sinks as well as rammed air cooling devices, meaning they can actually fire almost constantly for long periods of time without overheating.

* * *

 **SECONDARY WEAPON SYSTEMS**

Secondary weapons are those designed for a specific target that have poor utility outside of that target grouping.

The most common secondary weapon is the super-heavy weapon. Each race tends to sport its own. The turian lance cannon, which uses a mass effect field to force-compress unstable particles into a rough beam, and the elcor ion bombard, which utilizes compressed plasma fields to generate high energy ion blasts, are the most common super-heavy weapons seen. The Alliance CAIN system fits into this category. The only purpose of the super heavy weapon is to take down heavy mechs, tanks, and other armored vehicles, although against larger mechs it tends to be less effective. They are typically slow firing and bulky, making them something carried by specialist troops.

Missile launchers, flash-pak launchers, and grenade systems (either thrown or propelled) are the second category, most of which rely on plasma or forced matter/antimatter explosions to create damage. Explosive weapons can be used to crack fortifications, take down armored or airborne targets, and penetrate hardened defensive positions using natural terrain. Missile launchers are either single-phase bombs like the KRAKEN matter-antimatter missile, or multi-stage munitions like the HYDRA or the batarian CHAOS launcher. Missile systems are more targetable and have a longer range, a higher payload and more penetration, but are easy to spot and can only be fired, not placed.

Flash-paks are flat and thin mine systems that can be deployed from an underbarrel launcher or placed by hand. Thin sheets of omnifoam and plastic sandwich highly volatile chemicals with an electronic detonator. Flash-paks can be rolled up into small cylinders or even folded without harm, and are very easy to sneak and place. Their weakness is the relative lack of damage they produce, which is still enough to breach doors, kill unarmored or lightly armored targets, and disorient and damage others. The hanar pioneered the flash-pak for use with their drell assassin corps but they are popular with terrorists and commando groups as well.

Grenades have been used by humans since the eight century on Earth, but modern grenades come in a bewildering variety of types. They come in three types – globular types using 'sticky' polymers, flat discs using adhesives, and conventional rounded shapes for throwing or firing. Most grenades use explosive compounds or contained plasma, but salarians have a wide and terrifying array of substances, including but not limited to acids, bases such as lye, bio-weapons, radioactive products, shrapnel, and various chemical compounds. Grenades in Alliance tactics are used to deny movement, destroy cover and prevent charges, but other races use differing methodologies.

* * *

 **RARE WEAPON TYPES**

A few other weapons are used by various races. Melee weapons of all types, from simple knives and clubs, to mono-molecular edged swords and whips, to advanced VI-controlled omni-chain swords, eezo whips and biotic warp swords, are all found on the battlefield. The reason for these primitive weapons being used is simple. In space battles, almost every modern weapon will punch through the inner or pressure hull of a ship, causing atmospheric failure, or hitting fuel lines or (worse) heat containment or heat-sink systems. Boarding actions almost always rely on melee weapons to avoid this.

Secondly, all melee attacks completely bypass kinetic barrier technology, regardless of strength. Only advanced practice in biotic shielding can block slow moving melee attacks effectively, and do to so makes the biotic vulnerable to higher-speed impacts. The fact that most melee weapons can be designed to have innate armor piercing properties means that it is often faster to kill a target with a melee weapon than from range, assuming you can get close.

Melee weapons are not the only threat. The Hanar have several strange devices (last seen being used in the First Refusal War) that seem to be some kind of functional, long range compressed particle beam weapon. The Asari have demonstrated missile and even mini-missile systems utilizing the same compressed neutronium tech found in the now defunct KYLE class torpedo. Palavanus engineers recently announced the creation of a new magneto-hydrodynamic weapon called the Thanix Cannon that may make conventional weapons obsolete.

Alliance R&D is constantly searching for additional force-multiplier weapons to enhance the survival rate of our marines, special forces, and colonists. The most promising of these is work on weapons systems abandoned when we discovered the Mars Archives. Laser, particle beam and sheathed neutron beam technology programs are all in the works.

* * *

 **AMMUNITION**

For various reasons, each race tends to use their own type of ammunition. While some concepts overlap, even the volus have taken pains to internalize the ammo production options in their weapons systems.

The reasons why should be obvious – if you rely on an alien race for the core of your weapon functions you are in trouble in times of a blockade or if your relationship sours.

The human method was derived from examples we found in the Mars Archive from one Prothean weapon. An ammo block of reactive metal is pre-stamped with a nanotechnology etched pattern of either darts, flecks, or some other stabilized shape, and a shaver inside the weapon breaks pieces of this ammo block off in the stamped shape as the gun is fired.

This technology is very flexible as the shapes of the impactor can be altered on the fly, and the composition of the ammo block can also affect the damage (such as superheavy metals, reactive or radioactive materials, etc.)

Several other races use this method as well. Thus far, the only solely human innovation came from Oracal Demolitions ODIN shotgun, designed by the martyred Baroness Shepard in her youth and utilizing a mass effect shear field to shape compressed 'wedges' of reactive metal in an innately armor piercing shape. While other species have mimicked the technology in a crude fashion, only the ODIN (now a weapon produced by Shepard Defense Technologies as a Tier II CCW) uses it so effectively.

Turians use a device to cram together unstable particle packets instead of shaped metal. These packets explode upon impact, creating a burst of radiation and heat. They are superior at cracking armor, but less effective against kinetic barriers. A few turian weapons (believed salvaged from Inusannon technology) actually use crude mini-mass effect tunnels to hurl air that is turned into hyperplasma at a fraction of C.

Asari use mass effect fields to compress blobs or sprays of pure deionized plasma, which is famous for causing searing burns and splash damage. Given that asari regenerate from any other kind of damage to their bodies (albeit slowly), this weapon type makes sense. A few more exotic asari weapons actually draw upon the asari's natural biotics to enhance the blast field of the plasma impact. Asari also use powerful rail-guns that rival the impact capacity of some heavy tanks.

Batarians use multi-stage rounds – harpoons, spears, or conical blocks – in special weapons that are much larger bore than most other rounds, to create tangle-fields, spray mono-wire, or splatter area denial chemicals. Most of the rest of their armory uses conventional metal bits like humanity does. (Wild rumors of more powerful, biotechnological weapons have not been confirmed at this time.)

Salarians mostly utilize a mix of grenades, micro-grenades, and saboting versions of conventional metal rounds.

Most hanar weapons use a mix of high-energy plasma 'bolts' and conventional metal bits enhanced with radioactive properties. One weapon, the prism cannon, is a high-efficiency GARDIAN-style laser somehow downsized to a mobile version, that uses mass effect influenced magnetic fields to shape the x-ray blast.

Drell and volus both tend to use conventional metal rounds, although the drell version is longer and needle shaped, and the volus also make VERY heavy use of micro missiles and other explosives and all of their weapons tend to very long range.

Quarians (as usual) tend to break the mold. Almost all quarian weapons are minimal mass acceleration excited plasma-electroshock discharge weapons, either in bolt or conical discharge form. These weapons are very good at cracking shields, taking out mechs (and geth) and are a menace to anything with cybernetics, while retaining awesome killing power against organic materials as well. Their main drawback is a MUCH greater need for maintenance, short range, low heat and ammo tolerance, and the inability to shift ammo types or patterns which limits the op tempo of Quarian marine groups. Their Heavy Marines heavier plasma mortar impact technology obtained from the asari, but this is older tech (almost four centuries behind current spec) and highly modded over the years by quarians.

Krogan weapons were mostly developed (before the Rebellions) by the Ganar Weapon Crush Factory, and these now ancient guns are still working today, using a highly innovative mass effect 'compression' field to actually compress and fire what amounts to air supercompacted into a dagger-like shape. More modern weapons use very thick spikes launched from primitive rail systems and conventional metal rounds with upstaged, over sized mass rails that their heavy frame can support better than any other race.

The elcor use shoulder mounted ion based and EMP based weapons. Generally pacifistic, most of their weapons are only dangerous to cybernetic beings and mechs, but a heavy ion blast will certainly knock out even a strong krogan with a direct hit. They can tune the 'punch' of these weapons to form more solid – and utterly deadly – pure ion beams instead of the diffuse blasts, which will puree armor and kill even heavily protected vehicles in short order.

In the aftermath of the Benezia Incident,large masses of geth weapons were captured. The geth weapons technology was far beyond any of the Council races at the time, utilizing a shaped mass effect field to create and accelerate plasma 'darts'. These darts, despite being pure plasma, had an electrostatic enforced 'shape' that gave them high-energy armor piercing capabilities. All geth weapons are extremely rapid firing, accurate, and lightweight, but cannot be used by normal soldiers – there is no trigger and geth runtimes actually control and fire the weapon.

Much of the geth technology, especially the innovative mass field shaper, has been adapted into modern weapons. The removable heat-sink, sine-wave heat alteration firing pattern and fluidic-mount shock absorbers found in geth weapons are also now standard features in most military hardware. However, geth weapons are still a full factor above any Citadel or Terminus weapons designs, and only elite troops with heavy biotics should expect to engage successfully with geth infantry, much less heavy units.

Alliance R&D had recovered only fragmentary video of the weapons systems used by the enigmatic Collectors, but it appears to be a high-energy, collimated phased particle beam. This is very literally centuries beyond anything any of our races can produce, requiring energy levels that would power a frigate. The power of such a weapon would simply ignore kinetic barriers and tear through even powered ceramic-reinforced layered armor or Silaris banding like it was hardly there.

The weapon employed by the geth flagship, codenamed the NAZARA weapon, is another innovation. Originally believed to be of geth manufacture, Hanar and Citadel experts now agree the design is probably Inusannon or Prothean tech salvaged and adapted by the geth. In any event, this magneto-hydrokinetic impact weapon is utterly lethal, and has not been yet adapted to personnel weapons, but some research firms (including Black Net R&D in the Alliance) are working on models for such weapons.

Much like the similar Thanix ideal, this would invalidate not only conventional weapons technology but most shielding, mech and armor technology and turn space combat on its head. A weapon that can engage at light-minute (or greater) ranges with no delay would invalid missile and torpedo combat, while ground combat would require a complete overhaul of defensive technology or regress to pre-Iron mass wave assault tactics.

* * *

 **AMMO AND RAIL MODIFICATION TECHNOLOGY**

Most ammo systems can be modified in various ways, either by external packages that affect the rail and accelerator system, intake packages that affect ammo consumption, or ammo materials and blocks themselves.

The most common mods for kinetic based impactor rounds like the Alliance uses are ammo modifications. These include coring using depleted uranium (sledgehammer mods) to increase striking power and armor penetration; flash-sealed 'spindle' rounds containing reactive chemicals or explosives that detonate upon impact (hi-ex), or corrosive and pyrocorrosive metals that react upon exposure to air (inferno and incendiary rounds).

Most mainline weapon mods for kinetic impactors are friction reduction and air cooling systems to manage heat and reload chambering systems or additional shaping units to increase raw rates of fire. The so-called 'Saracino Device' is another common mod for sniper rifles, tapping into a carried stabilization back to ensure absolute accuracy of sniper fire by using a mass effect field to stabilize unsteady firing positions.

Energetic ammo types – turian APP and asari plasma rounds – have mods built into the weapon or barrel itself, since these typically draw ammo either from a preformed block of raw material that will be converted to energy or the surrounding atmosphere. The most common is the rapid precharger, that compresses and readies plasma bolts for acceleration, and various heat management mods to allow higher temperature or faster shots without damaging the weapon. Some asari can also use biotic invocations such as pull fields to drain ambient heat and air-cool their weapons that way, usually combining this with pulling targets out of cover for a snapshot.

Heavy payload weapons, like krogan and batarian systems, often focus more on launch modding, including higher powered or multi-segment rail systems to turn projectiles into terrifying kinetic impactors moving at supersonic speeds. The most terrifying of these is actually built into the Asari Adept rail cannon, which creates a sonic boom as a series of chained accelerators shoots a slug at nearly spaceship speeds.

* * *

 **ARMOR, KINETICS, AND DEFENSIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THEORY**

From ancient times, humanity has attempted to come up with methods to survive the weapons used in war. From material plates of iron worn over leather harnesses to reactive explosive plates on tanks, the balance between armor values and attack values was critical in several stages of human development.

In the modern battlefield, there are three tiers of protective and defensive equipment. For the purposes of this document, 'armor' refers primarily to defensive equipment worn by infantry units, not armored vehicles.

Most armor nowadays incorporates four elements : a basic lining that is designed to environmentally seal the suit and provide rapid heat ablation, an outer lining of super-strong synthetic fibers or carbon-tube mesh to resist splinters and shrapnel, a thickened hardened plate system of ablative ceramics reinforced with plasma or laser force-compressed carbon fiber to absorb shock and impact from kinetic rounds, and finally a surface covering that can be customized for various environments, to allay acidic, corrosive, cold, or other hazardous conditions.

Paired with most armor suits are kinetic barrier generators, that create either a pair of oval shaped shells or a hexagonal pattern of shielding around the user. This protection is not perfect – it has gaps where the generator arrays are located – but is mostly sufficient to block incoming fire. Kinetic barriers have three base 'strengths' – deflective, light, and heavy. Deflective kinetics are specialist shields used by miners and the occasional melee specialist that will only block solid objects above a certain size moving at a certain speed – falling rocks, or incoming blades. These screens cannot stop incoming accelerator fire.

Light kinetic shields are not any weaker that heavy shields, but are only rated to stop small arms fire and the like. Heavy shields are tuned with magnetic projectors to also block (or at least weaken) incoming plasma fire and most radioactive emissions. The difference is mostly in the size of the unit, the cost, and the TeV rating.

All shields are rated to fully block a certain amount of impact damage measured in TeV. Once that has been breached, the shield will collapse and need to spin up again to regain charge. While this is normally a fairly quick process, weapons designed to tear down shields can keep a soldier's shields offline for long periods of time.

Beyond armor and kinetic barriers, omni-generated armor plating and shielding is the final barricade to damage. Omni-projectors can create what is called 'tech armor' – projected flash fields of energy held in a coherent shape, much like the flash-fabbed omni-blades. This projective armor is fully capable of absorbing significant damage, and can be regenerated rapidly or detonated to create a damaging pulse.

Omni-shield technology is much the same but with more powerful projectors, creating a shield-like energy field on an arm to block shots. The biggest difference in omni-fields and kinetic barriers is that most biotics will completely bypass a barrier, but not an omni-field. This is why warp fire and the like is so utterly lethal to unaugmented infantry, as it bypasses their kinetic defenses and has a tendency to melt armor.

All of these defensive technologies have minor variations across the races of the galaxy, but only a few are worth mentioning. The most advanced armor systems are salarian, in terms of segmentation and quality. Salarian laser steel is tough enough to bounce even heavy fire at most ranges while being far lighter and less expensive than the asari Silaris armor.

Hanar warriors rely entirely on kinetic barriers and projected omni-armor, which makes them very vulnerable to impacts and biotics (and is no doubt why they use a private armor of terrifying biotic drell assassins). The hanar kinetic barrier is slightly more advanced than other races, utilizing mysterious Prothean advances that give it a green rather than blue tint and a chance to deflect incoming fire right back at the attackers.

During the Rachni War, krogan armormasters spent a great deal of time and effort creating multi-role environmental combat suits that could withstand crushing ocean pressures, acidic atmospheres, and other environmental dangers common on the rachni hive worlds. These suits have almost all rusted to ruin or been destroyed, but a few extant examples remain in krogan hands to this day and a few clans still produce modern versions. The Alliance pays a small fortune to obtain such mastercrafted survival suits designed to fit the wearer, and such suits have saved the lives of more than one AIS agent.

Given that their very lives depend on the integrity of their suits, quarian armor technology is surprisingly low-tech, mostly relying on segmented internal armor components and strapped on heavier armor plates over the base suit. On the other hand, their kinetic barrier technology is only matched by the finest asari units, and they were the creators of the idea of omni-armor, much to the irritation of the salarians who pioneered omni-fab technology in the first place.

As with weapons technology, the geth surprised the galactic community with their advancements. The geth warframe itself was constructed out of lightweight minerals flash-sealed into an almost organic looking set of armor plates, set over a cunningly armored skeleton protecting their internal components. An innovative mixed heat-management and hydraulics system was augmented by a musculature of myomer bundles, giving them astounding speed and flexibility along with the noted toughness and resistance to damage of myomer. All of this was topped by each geth possessing an oversized kinetic barrier generator that could somehow link up with other nearby geth to create increasingly powerful 'mass shield' fortifications in hexagonal patterns. While some inactive geth warforms were captured at Noveria, research has yet to yield the secrets of how these barriers work.

* * *

He arched an eyebrow at the last section, and decided he really needed to do some researching on the geth. He was about to book mark his stopping place and do an extranet search when his omni-tool chimed.

"Please report to Admiral Vandefar's office."

He stood, straightened his uniform, and took a deep breath before stepping off.


	2. Omni-Tech and Haptics - Fear

**_An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe:_**

* * *

 _ **A/N:** I read too much SCP, sue me. If you are interested in the hard technical details of Rydberg phenomena, a Google search will bring back three excellent but extremely technically heavy scholarly papers. _

_Any other method of the shit we see even in the games isn't really feasible. Single charge tunneling will not work, no matter what those hacks at Bioware claim. If you could pull that off you'd be a goddamned Time Lord, capable of generating whatever you wanted._

* * *

Jason Valthez walked along the carpeted blue corridor, glancing ever so often off to his right, where armaglass portals overlooked the expanse of Arcturus. The corridor was curved, with rich wood paneling and door after door with brass name plates that made his skin crawl with apprehension.

 _'Rear Adm. Jacek Kurgan, Intercession and Info Acquisition'_

 _'Rear Adm. Lana Citran, Forward Hostile Research'_

 _'Col. Jack Graham Kelly, Combat Mnmetics and Induced Remote Psychotropics'_

 _'Commandant Lasar Brannigan, Black Rendition'_

Jason didn't really want to know what Black Rendition was, and finally passed through a high archway set in blackened durasteel that opened out into a wide waiting area, heavy pillars of more durasteel flanking an armored double doorway and several smaller doors. Two heavily armed marines in unfamiliar looking flat-black segmented armor approached him, one with the bars of a lieutenant on his collar.

"I need your security pass, ID card, and for you to stand in the white marked box on the carpet by the scanning device when we tell you to, sir." The first marine's voice was bored but lined with a certain hardness, while the second had his fingertips tapping on his web-belt next the holster of a massive Zeus pistol.

Jason swallowed and gave a nervous smile, handing over the badge he'd been given and his Alliance identacard. He watched as the man slid the card, nodding as the blinking lights on the hand held device he ran it through turned green, then examined the card minutely before nodding a second time. "Here you go. The wall, sir."

Jason stepped onto the white metallic square nestled in among the thick blue pile carpet. A purplish beam from an emitter in the ceiling washed over him, and then a clear chime sounded. A VI's voice spoke quietly. "No indoctrincal lesions detected. No grayboxes detected. Hantaviral scans clear. No black nanological agents detected. Minor cyberware, lower back and right hand."

The two marines glanced at each other and then one tapped his omni-tool. "Colonel, Dr. Valthez is here to meet with Admiral Vandefar. He's clean."

The voice that came over the commlink was female and heavily accented with a strong Swahili tone. "Very good. Send him to me first. I will clear him through level II since he's not in the system, and take him to meet the admiral."

The marine clicked off. "Head through those double doors and all the way to the end of the corridor, the colonel's office is the last on the right." His mouth twitched. "And for God's sake don't piss the old warhawk off. She's got a razor tongue and hates kiss-asses."

Jason gave a little cough. "Thanks, Lieutenant." He took a deep breath and walked through the double doors.

If the corridor before had been lavish, then this one was frightening. It only held four doors, two on each side, and was twice as wide as the previous corridor. Everything was hardened laser steel, with a narrow strip of black carpet covering most of the floor. Automated turrets tracked him as he walked ahead slowly, and the symbol of Alliance R&D – a book over a sword – was embossed heavily into each of the wall panels.

He came at last to the designated door, flanked by a brass name plate that read 'Col. Nyomba Sahu, Project Security, _Ahaltocob_ ' He hesitated in front of the door before tapping the haptic touch plate. "Lieutenant Valthez, ma'am.'

"Enter!"

He took another breath and stepped forward, the doors sliding open to reveal a room comprised almost completely of black armaplast and thick blackened steel bulkheads. A pair of glowing haptic screens covered in scrolling information took up two walls, the bottom of each split into multiple windows showing security camera feeds.

The third wall had a thickly-built metallic desk built into it, with rustic looking floor lamps of bronze on either side. As he entered the room fully, the woman sitting at the desk turned around and stood.

Her frame was massive, thick with muscle to the point of near masculinity, which was only enhanced by her titanic nearly seven foot tall frame. Her dark skin had a series of harsh, runic tattoos running down each side of her jawline, while one eye was framed in gruesome looking scar tissue and surmounted by a black-steel cybernetic eye. Her night-black hair was close cropped except near the front, forming two small bangs that framed her face. Her uniform was flat black with a armor panel across the chest, the sleeves rolled up to reveal one heavily muscled arm with an Alliance 'A' tattoo and one thick cybernetic arm with armor paneling. Thick steel toed boots thumped across the floor as she walked closer.

"Valthez. Bioethics and cybernetics, right?" Her voice was hard but still pleasant, although the exotic accenting gave her words an odd cadence.

He nodded, and her flat features broke into a sneering smile, narrowing her angry black eyes for a moment. "Good. You have no fucking clue why you're here, do you, Lieutenant? Why the Alliance would go to the trouble of salvaging the wreck of your career and want you to work for them?"

He straightened. "I can only make unsupported assumptions at this stage, Colonel." He licked his lips. "But if I had to guess, based on my background and work history, it has something to do with the work I did at Sirta that was of restricted nature and questionable ethical ramifications."

She looked at him a second and the sneer faded from her features, softening them ever so slightly. "Not an idiot, I see. Good. Sit." She gestured to a hard-backed chair near the desk and stumped over to sit in her own swivel seat.

As he sat, she fixed her dark, fierce gaze on him. "Before I begin, I need to make one thing clear. From this moment on, your mouth is to remain shut on what you do for us to everyone. Alliance R&D is already Nova clearance, and what you'll be working on is beyond Nova. It's Thaumiel."

He blinked as he sat. "I'm … not familiar with the reference. I thought Supernova was the highest possible Alliance clearance."

She snorted. "Nova is clearance only to the President, Joint Chiefs, AIS Director, and Lords of Sol. Supernova is only cleared to the AIS and the lords...Thaumiel is name-only clearance held by a total of nineteen people...until today. You are number twenty. The penalty for releasing this information level to anyone not cleared is death or worse. Thaumiel is a designation for the containment of threats to … human survival or even existence."

As his mind wondered what exactly could be worse than death, and then began thinking on what in the hell could threaten all of humanity, she tapped a control on her omni-tool and the doors locked with heavy thuds. The hum of a privacy generator erupted to life a moment later. "Bluntly put, Doctor, you're here to help us understand something we have come across. An anomaly of sorts, and one we think is going to present a problem in the future."

He arched an eyebrow. "Anomaly?"

She smiled that thin smile again, tapping her omni-tool. One of the screens on the wall blanked, a moment later displaying a clean-room facility with a badly damaged humanoid being on a white operating table. "In the aftermath of the Benezia Incident, we attempted to review a great deal of information found during the exploration of the sites on Noveria and in other places. We reviewed some of the more … curious and unexplained things left behind at those sites."

"Some of what we found was gruesome, most of it was impenetrable, and some of it violated the basic laws of thermodynamics. None of it was safe to use, much less research – and yet, if we failed to understand what we were and are dealing with, that would leave us vulnerable." She exhaled. "You'll be briefed on on the details later, by the Admiral. I just want to reinforce – the threat is real, dire, and is capable of fucking killing us and every other high order sentient being in the galaxy."

He swallowed. "I...see. How does this relate to my work, though?"

She gestured to the screen. "As I said, the Benezia Incident opened our eyes. Benezia T'Soni was one of the most powerful biotics in the known galaxy. She fought her way through God only knows what to get on the Citadel, and from Baroness Shepard's reports, beat the hell of out of a blademistress and took out a top flight Commissar, Shepard herself, and Lieutenant Commander T'Soni while badly wounded – and in the end, they didn't kill her."

He frowned. "I thought she was killed by her daughter."

Colonel Sahu shook her massive head. "No. The real story isn't important, but you might as well know. She got up after that last blast and eventually came to her senses when … something .. tried to puppet her into destroying the Citadel. According to Shepard, she was killed by the contained explosion of an asari warp sword, which _should_ have vaporized her as cleanly as it did the decking below her feet."

She gave a feral smile. "Given the chaos in the Citadel after the Incident, it was hardly a surprise that an Alliance response team was the first to reach the site of the battle there. Keep in mind that, again, Benezia supposedly blew herself up by warp sword detonation, which has killed over six hundred people in the past and literally melted a battle tank. In the process of … securing the area, that team found what remained of the corpse of Benezia T'Soni below the Council meeting floor."

His eyes widened. "How?"

She tapped the tool again, displaying closeups of the corpse, naked. "By way of highly extensive and completely alien cybernetic technology. Saren was fitted with the same, but we had a very limited frame of time to study it. No one knows we have her body, and we've had all the time we need to examine it...and come to some fairly ugly conclusions."

Another gesture. "As you can see, some fifty five percent of the bodily mass survived. And based on repeated testing … the subject is not _totally_ dead."

He gazed at the picture in a mixture of horror and wonder. "...but how? Her entire body is burned to a crisp, both legs are mostly gone, the left arm is missing, the skull – "

The colonel nodded. "I know. But there is still cellular, mitochrondrial and some other kind of activity going on inside her body. In fact, that's why we called you. Closer examination via magnetic resonance showed her entire body is literally overrun with nano-scale threads of some exotic metal, configured in chains wrapping around every major tissue, bone and organ remaining in the body."

She smiled, tapping her omni-tool again, and the scrolling text of Jason's research into sub-cellular cybernetic nanothreading appeared. "You are the foremost expert on this technology, yes? On your work on bio-synthetic regenerative resonance and regenerative nanothreading in general?"

He leaned back, a baffled expression crossing his features. "That work was _abandoned._ Not only was it completely unethical on every possible level – it would allow you to control a living being like a damned mech – it was economically unfeasible in terms of cost and maintenance and basically as unworkable as ship-scale omni-armor."

She leaned forward. "But you made a prototype, yes? Examined it? Found at least some methods to implement this sort of thing?"

He shook his head. "Not anywhere near on that scale! We could never come up with a way to deploy the high level of information needed to rebuild sub-cellular structures on that level or incorporate the needed cybernetic frameworks. In order to do that you'd need … gods, I don't even know. Some kind of super AI to manage all the connections – in real time! And the moment that shut off the being would most likely just … come apart into bionetic goo."

Colonel Sahu nodded. "Yes, I know. We pulled the research months ago, checking your work and that of Doctor Elisa Vaan to see if it matched up. Your method is, compared to what's inside Benezia, incredibly crude."

She squared her shoulders. "But someone – _something_ – has mastered that technology. We have footage of the fights on the Citadel where the large krogan-hybrid creatures used the same tech when wounded. Don't worry. We aren't interested in using it ourselves. As you said, that would be _unethical_."

The almost sneering amusement in her voice made his stomach lurch as she continued. "But the Admiral wants to know how in fuck it works."

He blinked. "In the name of God, why? It's abominable – taking black nano and shoving a person full of it until they're no more than a sack of flesh shaped like their old form, but really just a template. What possible need would the Alliance have of studying it if Benezia is dead?"

Sahu laughed. "Like I said. She's not entirely dead. There's still cellular and nanonic activity whenever we take the corpse out of stasis. And … well. We need to know how it works so we can figure out a good method to counter it, to shut it off. We believe … based on interrogation of an asset taken in the Damocles Incident, that the batarians may have access to this technology."

A cold feeling crept up his spine. "...shut it off? Colonel, if the theories I had were correct, a fully nanothreaded device literally can't be destroyed except via direct contact with antimatter or some other method to completely, totally vaporize every last part of the body." He paused.

"Nanothreading involves a core reworking of the subject from the ground up. Every cell, every tissue and organ, all of it is suffused with nanothreads that make the subject much stronger and tougher. Each bit of this nanotech has the complete framework of the body it is installed into, and even a fragment of the flesh can recreate the entire being. And as long as it has access to repair material and it isn't completely vaporized, it _will_ rebuild them."

She frowned, making her hard expression even harder. "What about energy? How does it power itself?"

He shook his head. "Rapid reconstruction will use a lot of energy, true. But even once that's drained, that doesn't stop it. Even our crappy prototypes could draw upon ambient heat differences, brownian motions, you name it. It won't be fast but it will still be repairing whatever it is attached to."

The colonel sighed. "That fits our observations, and it is what we expected, and yet we still need to know how to counter it."

He glanced at the screen with the image of the asari corpse. "How...fast is this regenerative effect happening on the subject?"

She snorted. "We're not worried about this trash." She gestured at the corpse of Benezia. "Although we are taking every precaution. We've got her sealed in a full-dark hardened remote lab facility in a rock orbiting a super giant, with enough M/AM explosives on the asteroid to vaporize a small moon and engines rigged up to plow it right into the sun. All examinations are done by remote robotics, and we've planted charge on the damned mass relay into the system just in case."

She sniffed. "But at the rate of 'repair' we're seeing, even if we were stupid enough to leave her out of stasis for long periods of time, Benezia will be waking up in about six thousand years. The larger problem is several pieces of evidence suggesting, as I said, that this may have been something certain batarians...possibly the Batarian Emperor himself...have access to."

She met his gaze."Tell me, doctor, how long could we last in a war against creatures all enhanced with nanothreading? Against a horde of enhanced batarians that could shrug off every wound, every injury, and regenerate even from being splattered into smoking paste?"

He shook his head. "Not long. In the … prototype I helped develop, we didn't have a full … deployment. Only major organs and some of the structure of the body itself. Even so, with every limit and failure we had, we were able to hit the experimental subjects with direct hits from HYDRA missile systems – and they survived."

The colonel leaned back in her over-sized chair. "That sounds about like the face of it. You can understand exactly why this is a Very Bad Thing. The number of people who can even understand this tech is probably something I can count on the fingers of one hand." She lifted up her cybernetic hand, which only had a thick thumb and three bulky armored fingers, and gave a slanted smile. "For the nominal future, a lot of what you'll be doing is helping us refine our understanding of what weapons systems can be deployed to the greatest effect."

He exhaled but nodded. "I see. And this … larger threat you spoke of?"

The colonel's expression darkened. "Is the originator of this technology, and worse. The Admiral will be covering that with you. Admiral Vandefar is the head of Alliance R&D and will be involved in your tasking and direction, but only on paper. In practice, you'll be tasked with accompanying Marine or AIS smash and grab teams, identifying elements used to implement and maintain this technology and either destroying them or capturing them."

She paused. "As a result you're going to be exposed to some pretty nasty possible situations. You'll do morning PT with my security force, and while you had to qualify on basic marksmanship in the Academy, here you'll be spending at least two days a week on military drill and combat practice."

She reached over to her desk and picked up a thick, slate-gray data pad with a biometric lock on the side and tossed it to him. "Absolutely nothing you work on is to ever be entered into anything except one of the hardened terminals in the labs, or onto this device. Do not put the shit you work on here on your omni-tool. Don't try to take your work home."

She stood. "Admiral Vandefar will give you the formal briefing, and then introduce you to the Project _Ahaltocob_ team. You'll be assigned officer quarters here in this building and provided a uniform allowance. Tomorrow morning at nine AM I expect you back in my office so we can enter all your biometrics into the system so the turrets don't blast you, that badge will not work in the hot labs."

He nodded numbly, and stood when she did. "For now, you can wait in the admiral's briefing room. She's still finishing up some kind of meeting." He followed her out of the darkened, depressing metal cave of her office, back into the corridor and down to the first door on the left.

Stepping through it after the colonel, he found a well appointed waiting room. A pair of double doors opened into a conference room of some kind, with rich wooden furniture and armaplast windows overlooking Arcturus, while another door lead off to what had to be the Admiral's office, shut tightly.

There was a slender, older marine in flat-black fatigues at the desk, who looked up as the Colonel and Valthez entered. His face was marred by three ugly slashes from his hairline to his jawline, one bisecting his right eye, which had been replaced by a cybernetic attachment. A neat row of decorations was emblazoned on his right chest, and Jason's eyebrows shot up at the site of the ribbon version of the Star of Sol with two repeats and four valor decorations. The broad brass bars across his shoulder indicated he was a senior warrant officer.

"Command Warrant Officer Irons, this is Lieutenant Valthez, the new researcher. When the Admiral is done briefing the High Lords and Joint Chiefs, will you send him in? He needs the Thaumiel briefing kit and clearance for _Ahaltocob_ **,** if you don't mind."

The older man nodded, his good eye narrowing in appraisal. "Sure thing, Colonel. I'll rustle up the paperwork and get him an OSD with it." He glanced at Jason. "Might as well have a seat and I'll let you know when she's ready for you, Lieutenant."

Jason moved over to the couch on the south wall of the room and sat, and the Colonel turned on her heel and stomped out. The warrant officer gave a faint chuckle as the door shut. "Hell of a woman, ain't she?"

Jason's voice was wry. "She is … ah, very martial. Direct. And scary." He paused. "But she seems a somewhat strange choice for a colonel in a research division."

Warrant Officer Irons gave a grin. "She's smarter than she sounds – has a doctorate in some kind of engineering – but she's mostly in charge of when R&D has to get dirty instead of genning up crap in a lab. And trust me, be very damned glad she's on our side. I've seen that woman shrug off heavy machine-gun fire and break a big-ass batarian over her knee like he was a child."

He nodded, and then clicked on his omni-tool as the warrant officer went back to work, opening up the next chapter of the Engineering Guide for lack of anything else to do but wait.

* * *

 **ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES**

As an Alliance R&D researcher, you might expect that you would be doing conventional work in a lab environment – and depending on your assignments, you very well might. But most of what we do falls more into the realm of technological engineering of existing technologies into military applications than pure research – and in that light, you may be tasked with a more active role in obtaining or understanding such technologies.

In pursuit of that goal, basic groundings in the primary constructive technologies used on the battlefield are essential. From a military standpoint, there are four such technologies : optronics, haptics, omni-tech and infowar.

All four technologies are highly interconnected – optronics is required for both haptic interfaces and omni-tech deployment, while info-warfare and combat engineering often requires both haptics and omni-tech to be utilized. Deep understanding of the complex physics behind each isn't a requirement; the primary concern is that researchers understand how they relate to one another and how they comprise the basics of much of our military equipment.

* * *

 **OPTRONICS AND ELECTRONICS**

Conventional transistor and later solid state electronic components dominated human technology until we encountered our cousins the asari. Conventional electronics reached a pinnacle of possible miniaturization and complexity with stacked quantum pattern board electronics, pioneered just after the discovery of the Mars Archives.

However, even these systems were highly vulnerable to EMP and generated high amounts of heat, while requiring significant programming and were generally inflexible. The asari used a more elegant system of quantum cascade laser logic, decoupled charge devices, and the incorporation of eezo into their electronic circuits.

Put simply, optronics is a form of fiber-optic based electrical switching and quantum laserpath logic circuits that can perform operations of almost limitless amounts at much higher speed while being mostly immune to EMP disruption and build up of heat. They are also not vulnerable to static electrical discharge, which makes them utterly critical for FLT travel, as conventional electronic devices are usually wrecked by FTL – one reason early model Alliance ships were so unreliable after long FTL transits.

Optronics is required both for haptic technology and omni-manipulation, making it a core strategic element. Unfortunately, the exact secrets of how to create the more complex optronic circuits is still an asari specialty, although (unlike other races) the asari have taught humanity how to create basic optronic circuits.

Most advanced optronics is purchased in kit form or by pre-stamped single-purpose circuits from the asari themselves. However, it can be reconfigured in the field by asari engineers or custom ordered from asari manufacturers for a wide range of devices, uses, and fields.

As a great deal of Alliance equipment relies on optronics, it is considered a critical strategic aspect and yet another reason to maintain our favored position with the asari. We pay roughly forty-five percent less for 'raw' optronics and thirty percent less for 'patterned' optronics than the other races, as part of our favored status trading agreement.

From an Alliance R&D standpoint, being able to reverse engineer the exact process of how optronics work is of critical importance. Much of the technology base we use today is merely human front end modules on asari black boxes, a state of affairs that has allowed us to advance rapidly in terms of capabilities but has crippled our own understanding.

While this is – at the present time – not necessarily a bad thing, it imposes a strategic dependence on the asari that Alliance R&D feels is ultimately corrupting. We cannot ascertain future changes in our diplomatic arrangement, and given certain intelligence – not relevant to this guide – it would behoove us to minimize that dependency as quickly as possible.

Current efforts suggest that part of making optronic circuits likely involves the use of biotics, which is why the salarians and hanar have been no more effective at reverse engineering optronics than we have. One important aspect is that the fiber-optic components are made using some form of highly ordered alumina/silica hybrid. The exact nature of this mixture (which surpasses human fiber optics made using plastics) is puzzling, but it seems to cut attenuation losses to almost nothing.

Detailed examination of optronic boards and switches also shows some form of layered microscopic channels in the more advanced elements, which are somehow infused or inlaid with finely powered eezo. Attempts to duplicate this eezo doping process have also failed.

Optronic systems used by the asari tend to utilize a complex blue-green laser system, although this may be due to a large portion of their technology being fully capable of amphibious operations.

* * *

 **OPTRONICS CONSIDERATIONS**

Given that optronic components are required to run both military haptic systems as well as omni-technology projectors, as you can imagine this is a very high priority topic for the Alliance to obtain some level of mastery on.

Asari who have joined the Alliance are almost always clanless with no actual technical backgrounds. Only a handful of Clan Engineers have joined and most of them have little knowledge as to the deep scientific and technical details behind optronic construction. On the other hand, their assistance has allowed us much greater skill in optimizing and customizing the asari black boxes we utilize.

(As an aside, the asari caste system – Thirty, Clans, and Clanless – is considered by Cultural R&D to be very strange given asari concepts of unity. It allows for information, techniques and knowledge of both technology and biotics to be strictly controlled, and for higher-level asari to determine just exactly what the clanless can and cannot do. This frustration of effort has driven more than a few clanless to the Alliance, but most Clan Engineers who have come to us are, for lack of a more favorable word, criminals and outcasts. If Cultural R&D's theories are correct, the asari Thirty appear to have deliberately used social stratification to retain tight control of their technology, which is why so little of it has been reverse engineered by the Salarian Union nor mimicked by the Hanar Ascendancy.)

There are not all downsides to this situation. One side effect of utilizing pre-built tech is that our control and pilot/nav systems appear to be more highly developed than turian or quarian systems and nearly on par with salarian systems, mostly due to tightly integrated haptics. The very low asari pricing on such systems sold to Alliance and other human parties has allowed us to extensively fit almost every aspect of our military and much of our civilian population with such things, while they are far more rare in the hinterlands and Terminus systems.

This is both good and bad – good in that it enhances our military capacities, but bad in that it makes light military units and some civilian populations raiding targets. The Batarian Empire is no longer in open hostilities with us, but various fragment groups of batarian warlords or raiders still target such things. As military control systems, ECM systems and ship VI's are major consumers of optronic components, the protection of such things has become ever more critical – and raised the prices of optronics year after year.

* * *

 **OPTRONICS AND MILITARY SYSTEMS**

The primary uses of optronics include all haptic control and command surfaces, most haptic projection devices, omni-armor projectors, Rydberg-Dirac projections (omni-tools, omni-blades, etc) and most high order VI systems. (Blue boxes can still be built with conventional quantum circuits but are highly inefficient and bulky, where as an optronic blue box takes up about the same space as a wall cabinet.)

Alliance Flight III (2075+) ships and all current model armor and battle-suits rely on optronics. The base combat omni-tool used by the Alliance military is an asari model modified for human use, but the advanced tools used by N-series and the AIS are custom built and require optronics as well.

All current GARDIAN and MONTAUK targeting and combat projection systems utilize optronics. All current fighters and gunships and ninety percent of higher-tier computer systems use it as well. If the Alliance was forced to buy at full price, it would contract our GDP by 7%, and if embargoed we would run into diminished operations in sensor, communications and control function in four to six months.

Optronics has a tendency to degrade overtime, becoming opaque and requiring infrequent but regular replacement. (This is why the first series of border conflicts with the Batarians and the second set saw such a drastic decrease in batarian targeting capabilities – the conflict exhausted their supplies and trade with Aria's domain did not even suffice to break even.)

* * *

 **HAPTIC TECHNOLOGY**

Haptic technology is nearly ubiquitous in the modern age. From advertising and aircar controls to the adjustment panels on smart clothing, it has become the standard for instrumentation and interfaces. First developed by salarians attempting to find more uses for optronics than the simplified mass lightwave computers used by the asari, the technology has grown by leaps and bounds since it was first introduced.

The term 'haptics' is utterly misused and misleading, a word appropriated and then assigned to the technology the asari first introduced to humanity after the FCW. Haptic systems are (by definition) any system that is holographic in projection and relies on acoustic radiation pressure or other more exotic wave propagation systems to detect input (usually touch, but also verbal or even motion based). In short, the haptic system is a combination of multifunction holographic display, sensor, and computer system.

Haptic displays allow vast amounts of controls and information to be relayed quickly and efficiently to operators. Given the complexity of modern space warfare, ECM and information warfare, this is often critical. Haptic technology makes it possible for a warship to be flown by a minimum number of pilots and for rapid reconfiguration of consoles for any purpose.

Civilian haptic technology is found using lower-quality projectors that have a very weak tactile response. Most of these incorporate motion sensors as well as other detection methods and are known to be less than functional in rain or foggy condition. Military systems, on the other hand, rely exclusively on high performance, high resolution projections and combine many different systems to ensure not only that input is detected but detected accurately.

Haptics as an industry has exploded in popularity in the Alliance much as it has elsewhere. Haptic advertising allows a single touch to pull up a consumer's purchasing records, tailoring displays to their liking. Haptic entertainment systems can pull up detailed information (such as a sports teams records, or the voting record and positions of a politician) at the touch of a finger.

Likewise, haptics has revolutionized surgical medicine, allowing for servo-controlled robotic manipulators to perform surgery too fine and difficult for the human hand while displaying and reacting to input from a haptic representation of the surgery site.

While the optronic components of haptic technology remain vague, we can produce and maintain our own haptic systems for the most part. Human haptics are typically a dark orange, shading to red in battle stations or low light conditions. Asari systems are deep blue, salarians prefer bronzed green, and turians pale white. From what little we have seen of renegade or separatist drell military forces, their haptics are actually in the ultraviolet range. Quarians rarely use haptics given the cost to maintain them, but have some simpler systems that mimic their effect. What few haptic systems remain on Tuchanka are legacy salarian systems.

From a purely military standpoint these are conveniences, yet they allow for centralized training and much easier creation of training systems and labs for our military pilots and combat engineers.

* * *

 **HAPTICS CONSIDERATIONS**

The primary innovation in haptics in the past decade has been to integrate them with omni-facturing capabilities to allow on-the-fly design and modification of various parts, mechanisms, or other devices. Without delving into unnecessary technical detail, the realization of this process would eventually allow for high-quality modifications to weapons and armor systems in the field by armorers, rapid repair of damaged components in battle, and even delicate surgical operations on the battlefield.

Jamming and disrupting haptic displays is a minor but crucial component of some races infowar capabilities – quarians in particular have very nasty capabilities in turning haptic control panels into digital mush incapable of interpreting anything. As a result, all piloting systems and weapons control interlocks must include manual hydraulic-electronic interfaces using hardened direct optronic relays and old fashion direct hydraulic feedback systems. While these will result in a degradation of flight quality and firing accuracy, it still is a better outcome than being completely unable to fly or fight an enemy.

There is also some work being done in haptic visual encryption, using advanced stenographic /mnemetic underlays on certain haptic displays to convey intelligence to field agents. The Cerberus terrorist network pioneered much of this method, which was conveyed to us when raids on their HQ resulted in capturing a large amount of research data. So far, no other races have tumbled to this concept yet, and keeping it a secret (and developing it further) are high priority tasks.

* * *

 **OMNI-TECH OVERVIEW**

At its very core, omni-programming and omni-projection technology are two very different things. Put simply, omni-tech uses a functional variation on Rydberg blockade phenomena (mostly high order 'repacked' lithium ions) to create what some would call hard light. The projection branch focuses on using this effect directly, the programming branch deals more with using it to modify other things.

People often confuse the terms omni-tool, omni-gel, and omni-field. (Sadly, this is due to the starkly limited method of salarian cant – the root salarian word, 'tukchi', does not translate cleanly at all. The best fit would be 'the open hand that can form either a fist or a flower'). The simple way to keep them clear in your mind is that tools shape gel and make fields.

At the core of all omni-tech is the omni-tool, which is a haptic computer band either implanted in a projection chip or worn as a bracelet. This computer combines an onboard VI, extranet connection, haptic display projector, basic sensor, and a wireless MHF transmitter that is keyed to various omni-gel programming control bands. It also contains a Rydberg-Dirac photonic entanglement projector.

This device, which operates by 'locking' photons together until they are capable of interacting with matter directly, is the core of omni-projection. This locking action is known (to the Alliance, at least) as Rydberg blocking phenomena, and beyond the most basic description is most likely too advanced for non-physicists to understand.

( _Alliance R &D is well aware that other races define the Rydberg phenomena family by other names. Alliance personnel shall use the human designations unless a term combines human and alien researcher results, such as Maethr-O'Connell-Vabo)_.

Put simply, the omni-tool can make fields of projected energy in a hard, discrete shape. This energy can be modulated into various shapes as needed – most commonly, omni-blades for close range or shipboard combat, omni-armor projected directly from an armor plate to block incoming fire, or omni-shields generated from an omni-tool that can be used for both attack and defense. All of these are formed from unstable high-energy shells linked into place and shape by Rydberg photonic molecules shaped and held by a low-level mass effect field.

Mass-stabilized RBP's allow the field to be strengthened based primarily on energy input. Beyond a certain level the phenomena begins to decay on a quantum level, so the resulting output cannot sustain itself, nor can it be held indefinitely. While it exists, however, such generated shapes are almost indestructible. Omni-shields and omni-armor can block massive amounts of damage that would otherwise outright kill or destroy material objects, and omni-blades with sufficient TeV rating can block even energized asari warp swords and eezo whips (although not very well).

As with any technology there are trade-offs. While reliable and quick to utilize, the main drawback is that there is no way this is a stealthy system – the energy levels required make any such tech glow brightly and produce distinctive harmonic vibrations from scattered photons interacting with the shaped envelope. It also requires a good deal of energy – without dedicated energy sources most omni-tools cannot generate omni-shields at all, and omni-blades generated without an energy source of sufficient power are unlikely to withstand blows from high disruption impacts (like a warp sword).

The second use of omni-technology is the rapid programming and shape of omni-gel. Omni-gel is a semi-conductive suspension that can be phased into a solid shape by way of omni-tool. Unlike the examples above, once the energy is removed the most stable configurations are 'locked' into place. This allows for omni-facturing everything from clothes to on-demand tools. Most modern armored vehicles have static forged omni-projectors linked to omni-gel reservoirs to generate additional ablative armor if damaged in combat, and all shipboard damage control kits contain pre-flashed omni-gel designed to harden with exposure to vacuum to seal hull breaches.

The two are combined in omni-foundry devices, which are the logical follow on to 3D printing processes prototyped over a century ago. These allow rapid creation of complex mechanical devices and spare parts from simple templates, improving logistics capabilities and reducing the need for parts storage. While this is heavily drawn on by the civilian market (especially the air car and automotive markets) it is also critical in almost every military application from arming colonial militias and setting up forward operating bases to maintaining repair part levels aboard long-patrol ship missions.

* * *

 **OMNI-TECH AND MILITARY APPLICATIONS**

Obviously omni-technology remains a critical component of the Alliance military war package. All boarding actions and most close-range combat will make heavy use of omni-blades and omni-shields, given the relative internal fragility of ship systems and the ever increasing power of military personal weapons.

Omni-armor, in particular, has revolutionized defensive military planning and armor designs, requiring much more efficient and small power sources and force-feedback trickle movement chargers in even our basic armor sets. Refitting a set of basic armor with omni-armor grants it toughness nearly on par with much heavier and expensive armors at a fraction of the cost, while retaining light weight, mobility, and easier concealment.

Further development of omni-weapon concepts – the so-called omni-bow and other projectile weapons – has suffered due to lack of a suitable power source and the limited range of these weapons. Omni-bows are mostly used by assassins and other unsavory types who need a weapon they can sneak past most sensors, but it has very limited penetration.

Attempts to scale up omni-armor to vehicle or starship sizes have all failed. Projecting a Rydberg-Dirac field over a larger area results in exponentially expanding energy costs and weakened durability. While a set of omni-armor covering a large battle-suit can be powered by multiple RTGs and a conventional fuel-cell / eezo power source, scaling it up to cover a MAKO requires a full out fusion plant, and to cover a frigate a reactor typically used to power entire arcologies. Attempts at finding other stable photonic entanglement schemes (Rydberg-Palavanus and Maethr-O'Connell-Vabo) have failed in either power requirements, ability to stop damage, or sustainability.

In theory, super-potent zero-point energy sources (Inusannon power stars, for example) could provide enough energy for this, but as creating such devices is not even close to within our technology base and the number of known, functional power stars is in the low dozens (and the majority of those in asari or hanar possession) it is unlikely that such devices will bring about any breakthroughs.

* * *

 **INFO-WARFARE TECHNIQUES AND COMBAT ENGINEERING**

The roles that the Alliance military currently fields do not differ that much from pre-Iron military doctrines. Our basic marines fill infantry roles, while N-series units take up the role of special forces. Battle-suits and armor perform the same roles that tanks and motorized infantry did in WWII, while many other unit types – scout-snipers, combat medics, and the like – are merely updated versions to use modern weapons.

Biotic soldiers and combat engineers are the roles that have no real correlation to pre-Iron combat. The combat engineer is a combination of support soldier, builder, trapper, comms officer, and heavy infantryman in one mobile package. Much of this is due to the flexibility afforded to engineers by the standard loadouts they carry.

Combat engineering is a distressingly vague term that incorporates four elements. The first is the use of omni-gel and omni-fields to set up mobile strong-points and to fortify positions. The second is the use of ECM and other electronic warfare capabilities to degrade enemy sensors, targeting and the like while enhancing the sensing range and targeted accuracy of those fighting alongside him. The third, and perhaps most critical role, is to create combat and scouting drones and drop turrets to amplify a squad's or positions firepower and anti-armor capability. The final duty is the maintenance of gear, field repair, and on occasion, other forms of technical activity (such as hacking locks or disabling security systems).

As such, the combat engineer is not as good with pure combat tactics as an infantryman, but makes up for it in flexibility and combat multipliers. This does not take into account his more powerful omni-tool, which can perform things most common tools cannot – plasma generation, holographic camo, electrical discharges, omni-projectiles and more.

Alongside all of the above is the increasing role of information and computer warfare directly on the battlefield. Comms systems, GARDIAN targeting arrays, sensor suites, mech programming – all of these are vulnerable targets to be protected – or taken out if the opposing force gives one the opportunity.

As a result combat engineers tend to be the most highly intelligent and valuable soldiers the Alliance has, and Alliance R&D expends a great deal of effort enhancing their kit, skill-set, and options to make them more deadly and reactive to all situations.

* * *

 **INFOWAR TECHNIQUES**

Most infowar combat takes place via comms systems. With the need for real-time telemetry, the complications of FTL accelerated scanning, the staggering amount of ECM and IBT deployed on the battlefield, and the general chaos of combat, this is easier said than done.

Infowar programs come in many types, some mass produced, some custom coded. Most are loaded onto OSDs or infrared subduction discs and loaded to an omni-tool

At the most basic are the ubiquitous 'hak scripts' that push corrupted or bugged transactions to the onboard VI's managing modern weapons and armor systems. Examples of these include scripts to eject medigel or jettison ammunition from suits, lock down joints, cause weapons to overhead and vent burning heat sink components or even detonate, and more. Most hak scripts are run on a visual-target direct UV laser comm link, although on occasion this will have to be done via direct interface – i.e, jamming your omni-tool into an access port.

Above simple hak scripts are more complicated runtimes that can be used to overcharge defensive screens or hard kinetic barriers to burn them out, sabotage scripts to work against environmental or electrical systems, and hacking scripts to penetrate enemy comm networks and either tap into their communications or insert garbage or erroneous commands.

Hacking overrides to combat VI's, such as hacking mechs or automated systems, is the second highest level of infantry infowar and is complex enough that that it cannot be done simply. While most simple defense mechs employed for civilian uses or police augmentation can be overridden without much trouble, military VI's employ multiple layers of defenses, software traps, and other safeguards against being hacked and turned against our own people. It is safe to assume salarian, elcor and volus mechs follow the same rules.

The highest level of infowar programs are daemons, VI-driven autonomous programs that are designed to penetrate enemy systems on many levels and wreak havoc as they go. These are dangerous programs because they rarely discern friend from foe and, in the most extreme cases, are paired with black nano systems to allow them to affect things in the material world. All of these programs are classified as CHOKMAH level in terms of danger to living beings – in other words, it is very possible these sort of programs can go completely rogue and kill many more people than intended. They are only deployed upon specific orders and usually far from Alliance systems.

Infowar programs are sometimes coded directly by Alliance R&D, particular baseline versions that we expect veteran combat engineers to alter for their own custom purposes. Almost all higher level informational combat systems, including all VI overrides and daemons, are programmed by Alliance R&D, and this technology is not allowed in the hands of civilians or even corporations without express written leave from the High Lords.

As you can imagine, obtaining, decompiling and making defenses against alien hak scripts and VI overrides is of paramount importance.

* * *

 **COMBAT ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES**

Most combat engineering done utilizes systems we've already covered – omni-gel, omni-shields and the like. Two methods that are critical to this endeavor are more complex – independent and mobile combat systems (drones) and constructed erected defenses or objects (turrets and projectors).

Projectors are the most common defensive method. Most combat engineers will carry a multifunction drop pack as part of their gear. This is a highly configurable device and usually modified quite heavily by the engineers who use them. At its most basic, the projector acts as a small-scale omni-fab, creating disposable low-quality heatsink inserts for weapons, basic grenades, and small repair parts.

More elaborate models can project directed kinetic barriers of a stronger level than suit generators, a number of combat turret styles, phase-focusing fields to enhance the power of a biotic soldier, and even rations and other survival equipment such as tier I medigel.

These drop packs can be linked together to form more powerful and elaborate defensive setups. Each one also contains a powerful comm relay and a VI computer loaded with defensive plans for omni-gel constructions of small bunkers, barricades and other defensive embrasures. They are also equipped with redactors to render extra gear or raw materials into omni-gel, albeit slowly.

Drone systems – invented by the quarians – are the more active version of this technology. Each drone is a small, eezo-powered omni-projector with an onboard VI system capable of accepting multiple programs. This projector will create an armored omni-armor shell around itself, and is capable of creating a number of minimissiles by injecting unstable explosive gels into 'shells' of omni-projected energy that are fired at an enemy. These mini-missiles are powerful, but some drones are modified to project plasma streams, 'sticky' omni-gel goop, or are loaded with hi-ex and can be deployed as remote, mobile mines.

Drone swarms are possible by specially constructed 'legion packs' carried by some combat engineers that can allow the creation of as many as fifteen active drones. The omni-projectors themselves are not complex and can be fabricated fairly simply and then loaded with the needed software and gel from an engineer's drop pack device or the legion pack. Combined with the drop pack, even a handful of drones can provide an infantry squad surprisingly heavy firepower from an unexpected flank or oblique angle. The uses of drones is almost endless – they can be coded with encrypted data and used as secure couriers; reconfigured for sensor sweeps, ECM discharge, or as missile decoys; or even deployed with holographic image projections to decoy images of a squad and trick snipers into exposing themselves by firing.

The combat engineer's very name implies that he goes into combat, and thus the final aspect of his work is the number of effects he can create from his omni-tool. Most of these are support abilities, offensive in nature but limited in range and power. The most common uses are plasma or napalm discharge, super-powerful flash-bomb / stun lance discharge, high energy EMP blasts or ionic bolt discharges, and the occasional exotic use.

Engineers tinker constantly with this technology, and are always finding new applications for it. One very innovative combat engineer programmed up a two-step magnetic bottle process for blocking plasma, another use taught to the Alliance by quarian engineers is the creation of semi-solid omni-bolts tipped with corrosive, explosive or other payloads and fired. The famous Tyriun no Kage, well known for combining biotic theory with technology, made a mod before his rebellion that utilized magnetic accelerators and static discharge to create a sort of EMP shotgun.

The more mundane uses of combat engineering – repairs, fortification, and the like – are usually handled by stock programs, and there isn't much room for improvement there. Alliance R&D is always looking for additional applications that extend the flexibility of the technology, however, and a sufficiently innovative or creative idea will no doubt be pushed forward to the front for testing.


	3. Cybernetics, Bionetics, Nanonics - Shock

**_An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe:_**

* * *

 _ **A/N:** I looted systems and ideas from lots of places, some easily identified others ... not so much. Hopefully this makes things clearer.  
_

 _The story bit should also make you think a lot more, since I have written up stuff about the hanar._

* * *

It ended up taking twenty minutes for Admiral Vandefar to end her meeting. A cool, elegant voice with a touch of a Terra Novan accent sounded over the speaker system. "Warrant Officer Irons, I'm ready for Doctor Valthez now. Send him in, please."

The craggy face of the warrant officer split into a grin. "You're up. Word of advice. The admiral isn't like the warhawk. Nyomba likes people who talk back, the Old Lady doesn't."

Jason nodded, and checking his uniform for defects, squared his shoulders and walked through the double doors into the admiral's office.

It was fully as wide as the reception area, the back wall entirely taken up by a huge armaglass window that displayed the entirety of the Sphere spread out below. The left wall was completely covered in bookshelves, computer displays, and oblong computer servers with haptic keyboards hovering above them. The right wall was equally dominated by a massive series of shelves, displaying various diplomas, souvenirs, decor from multiple locales, and a number of haptic models of various particle interactions.

A wide glass desk with inset haptic screens and controls in a semicircular arc controlled the middle of the room, sitting atop an intricate and highly patterned rug of black, silver, and green wools. The figure seated behind the desk looked, at first glance, as if she was in her late thirties or early forties. Only the fine lines around the eyes and the frosting of white and silver in the formerly raven black hair showed her closer to sixty. Her eyes, a brilliant fierce green, sought his, and generous lips formed a narrow, cool smile.

"Lieutenant. I am Admiral of the Green Synthia Vanderfar."

He came to attention and saluted. "Admiral, ma'am. Lieutenant Jason Valthez, at your service." He broke attention at her nod, and took two steps forward to hand her the card with his orders and assignments on it.

She slotted this into a box on her desk, and a VI chimed. "Confirmed. Authorizations currently being set by Colonel Sahu. Adding to database."

She leaned back and gestured to the two chairs in front of her desk. "Have a seat, Lieutenant. You have had a pleasant trip, I trust?"

He nodded, somewhat slowly. "For the most part. The ride from Earth was a touch cramped, as the only flight was on a marine troop transport. I was on Arcturus briefly when working on my doctorate, enough to know my way around here."

She nodded briskly. "Good. Time-saving and efficient. You will find that I appreciate three things : efficiency, attention to detail, and thinking of consequences prior to taking action." She half turned her chair, glancing out the window.

"Alliance R&D is the mercurial, misbehaving stepchild of the Alliance Command Structure. Aside from Lord General Kirsten Dularis and Admiral Okuda, there aren't any other female officers in High Command. It wasn't until after the Benezia Incident that I was promoted to Vice Admiral and only a few months since they finally made me a full Admiral of the Green. Given that I did not do any service as an Alliance Marine, and did not qualify as a line officer I won't ever make Admiral of the Red."

She exhaled. "I tell you this because you must understand that R&D is critical to the survival and prosperity of the Alliance, and yet is often seen, I'm afraid, as an afterthought. Worse, I strongly suspect that the same ... institutions that backed the research that Sirta and your own team were involved in is, in effect, a black skunkworks project of which I have no knowledge or oversight. This worries me for a number of reasons, most importantly because of the larger ramifications if my suspicions are correct."

She turned back to face him fully. "I trust Colonel Sahu gave you an inkling of what we are involved in?"

He nodded tersely. "Yes, ma'am."

She quirked her lips. "Very good. Project _Ahaltocob_ is not, technically, on the books as precisely as what we know it to be. Ostensibly, it is simply research into aspects of some advanced cybernetic and augmetic technologies. There is a very good reasons for this. As I said, I fear off-the-books projects not under Alliance R&D oversight - or possibly even Commissariat oversight - are in place. Bad enough meddling with the sort of things the colonel showed you...and worse if they were working with the source. "

She paused. "I understand you were ... very well acquainted with such technologies at Sirta, yes? That until shortly before we investigated you were trying to replicate at least a crude version?"

He nodded again. "Yes. With nanothreading and the like. It was not successful, but ... even the failure was scary."

She folded her hands together. "Nanothreading and other advanced nanonic blackware type technologies are making an upswing, and as always anything of that kind of tech can be a threat. IF this was just about some outlandish tech, I'd not be so worried, but the source of this one is not anything conventional. In fact, it is so ... unconventional that when I was first exposed to the concept I nearly laughed it off. The source of this intelligence is however, unimpeachable - and sadly, quite dead, so we can't get any additional details."

She leaned forward. "Tell me, Lieutenant. Have you heard of Reapers?"

He frowned. "No, I haven't. Unless you mean the old-fashioned mechanical harvesting machines used on the Amish worlds..."

She gave a small laugh, a pressingly bitter one. "I only wish. Reapers, Lieutenant, are a code-word level intelligence item, classified TANTALUS. Which I do not expect you have even _heard_ of, as it is higher than Supernova and even Thaumiel. The only people cleared for it are the heads of state, Citadel Councilors, the Joint Chiefs and their various alien analogues, and the highest level of the Commissariat."

She made a distasteful face. "TANTALUS-level intelligence cannot be allowed into the open, for _**any** _ reason. It is so disruptive that it would possibly set off societal collapses. Thaumiel - which was originally designated for other things - is allowed a certain level of relaxation of that hard limit - in effect, allowing some aspects to be communicated to limited personnel with a strictly short scope of view. In this instance, your previous background with Sirta and the Commissariat assessment of you was what caught my attention. The Commissars felt that you were attempting to mitigate illegalities practiced by Sirta and that you, while integral to the project you worked on, were never in the know of what the purpose was."

He gave a grimace himself. "That's certainly true, Admiral. A lot of what I worked on had hard applications, but a lot of it was writing bioethical precis papers on ways the corporation could restructure existing known laws to allow 'various technologies' to be legal." He paused. "A lot of what we ended up working on was more bionetic or pure biotechnology than cybernetic or nanonic but I didn't do any work on those project directly."

She nodded. "And now you're wondering what a weird name, two confusing security classifications, your research at Sirta, and the Alliance salvaging your career have in common. The answer is not pretty, Lieutenant."

She turned, tapping a control on her desk. Instantly the wide window darkened to opaque, and a haptic projector displayed images on it - a wrecked cityscape. "Six years ago, Alliance R&D roughjacks on a class B2 ruined garden world called Feros discovered an anomalous lifeform. This lifeform, which we code named THORIAN, appeared to have been a survivor of the extinct Tho'ian Precursor race, believed to have been obliterated in war with the Inusannon over a hundred thousand years ago."

The image changed, to a series of computer consoles with rough looking men and women in orange jumpsuits seated at them. "A project was developed to work with this creature, which had deep knowledge of Prothean history and technology, and to use it to assist in translating certain aspects of the Mars Archives. Several cryptic statements made by the creature were not understood at the time, and some of what it helped us translate was also ... missing context."

Another image, this time of a crude painting on a stone, a lenticular shape with four slashes painted in yellow and multiple tentacle-like limbs hovering above four-armed stick figures bowing in supplication. The outline looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it. "The upshot of this research allowed us to deploy many new technologies, but the creature gave us warning that our understanding of the Insuannon and Tho'ians was wrong. They did not destroy each other ... they were allies. They were defeated by a stronger foe."

She glanced up at him. "A foe that also destroyed the Protheans, fifty thousand years later. A foe, the creature claimed that was still a threat today."

She changed the image on the screen again - this time showing the attack at Eden Prime. "Fast forward four years, and the Eden Prime attack happens."

His eyes widened. "The painting! It was the same as that geth dreadnought that attacked Eden Prime!"

Her expression was sourly amused for some reason. "...that was our initial belief. The investigation, as every one knows by now, eventually linked Saren and Benezia to the geth, in search of some form of what we assumed was a super weapon but turned out to be a method to invade the Citadel from within. Saren was killed but Benezia continued the plan before being killed off. The ... ship ... was destroyed by the combined forces of the Council, Alliance and Quarian fleets. "

She met his gaze again. "That was when we were finally told the truth, so to speak. The ship ... was not a geth dreadnought. It was controlled by an AI - it literally was an AI - and it was one of hundreds of others just like it. These AIs - Reapers - invade the galaxy at regular intervals, slaughtering all spacefaring races for reasons as yet unknown. They killed the Inusannon and Tho'ian , and the Protheans."

She shifted the image, showing a piece of nightblack metal with a disturbing sheen to it. "And based on recovered archological evidence... they've been doing this for the past sixty million years."

He rocked back in his seat. "W-what? How is that even possible?"

She shrugged. "Beyond your concern, Lieutenant. What is critically important is two things. First, the technology implanted in Benezia - and Saren - originated from this Reaper. No other source is possible. The second and more important thing is that Sirta had a sample of this technology in their possession and were trying to reverse engineer it, leading to your nanothreading project - and they had this technology _prior_ to either the death of Saren or Benezia. They also had assorted batarian biotechnology of unknown provenance."

She folded her arms. "Given this technology was highly illegal and the Sirta Foundation connected to known terrorist groups like Cerberus, of course, is why nearly everyone assigned to the project was executed after interrogation. But that investigation turned up troubling facts. What we found was that a small number of specialist researchers, like you, were recruited after the fact - everyone on the core team had been part of a joint Sirta Foundation - Ithacia Technology cooperative research mission during the Benezia incident hosted by House Vabo of the Asari Republic - and that is whom they obtained this technology from , some hanar. "

She exhaled and flicked to another image - a dead drell, littered with gunshots, burns, and impacts. One arm was half blown off and ended in a swirl of blood-red wires, and the eyes were empty pits, collapsed back into the skull. "Nine months ago we killed this piece of trash in the Mars Archive after a very long fight. A preliminary comparison of the cybernetics and nanoware in the body to that in Benezia's indicated this one's nanotech was even _more_ advanced."

"After reviewing what we knew, what we had gotten on the raid on Sirta, and some discreet inquiries, I made the call to start a new project, got permission to reveal some but not all details from TANTALUS under restriction Thaumiel, and begin figuring out a counter to this technology and where it was coming from. This is where your role starts, Lieutenant."

She tapped her desk, killing the projection. "The larger ramification of the Reapers isn't your concern. The appropriate parties are making preparation and we have enough time to do so. Unless you are secretly an asari, you and I will both be very dead by the time the Reapers are a worry in the immediate sense. I'm far more worried about subtle infiltration, about terrorism, about ... someone or something working with these AI's to destroy everything we hold dear."

She picked up a series of datapadds and set them in a neat stack on the desk. "Your first task and orders are simple. In conjunction with Colonel Sahu, you're going to review the inquest from the Sirta investigation and the resulting technology we found, as well as the autopsy results on this drell trash. You'll review certain AIS operations in batarian and hanar space as well, and some limited documentation of what we know about this ... nanothreading."

She looked at him. "Once that is complete you will be expected to construct a working theoretical application to shut down this disgusting technology - weapons that will destroy it quickly, and counter-agents to prevent it from functioning. We would also like some form of detection apparatus - we have one, but it is unclear if this technology by itself will trigger it. For all we know, a human or asari or God knows what could be walking around with this crap in them and we wouldn't have the first clue. THAT is unacceptable."

She exhaled. "Finally, once we have a clear understanding of the danger and how to counter it, we'll begin seeing if there's anything safe we can adapt from this technology, and if not, develop something from scratch. When appropriations comes, the results from that part will be passed off as what we've been researching the whole time, while our true final report will be presented only to the High Lords directly."

He narrowed his eyes. "No disrespect ma'am...but is this technology safe to research? Isn't that illegal?"

She smiled wider and tapped something in a plexiglass case on the desk. A moment later he realized it was a Red Note from the High Lords. "I'm empowered by direct order of the High Lords to protect humanity. The fact that its possible elements of the Alliance are in contact - or worse , cooperating - with beings that may be compromised by Reaper agents is simply intolerable. Compared to that - let me worry about the legalities."

She made a dismissive gesture with her hand, and he stood. "You'll need quarters, and most likely some time to settle in. Warrant Officer Irons should be done putting you into the system. You'll need to sign some things, and I'll have Ensign Courva escort you there. I recommend strongly reviewing the tech guide on cybernetic concepts - not since you need to know it, but so you are familiar with the Alliance R&D's technical level of knowledge."

She met his gaze. "Report back to the colonel tomorrow morning at 0800 hours. We'll have the full team meeting and project briefing at that time."

He saluted again and departed, coming back into the reception area. Walking over to the warrant officer, he smiled. "The Admiral said something about stuff I needed to sign?"

Irons scratched his head. "Yah, working on that now. Be another fifteen or twenty...mind waiting?"

Jason shook his head. "Not at all, sir." With a suppressed sigh he sat down on the lounge couch again, and decided to keep reading.

* * *

 **A WORD ON AUGMENTATION AND ITS APPLICATIONS**

Less than seven percent of humans have any significant level of augmentation of any kind. Less than a percent of asari do. Fourteen percent of salarians and sixteen percent of turians do. Once relegated only to the clinics of the rich, the increasing development of lower cost molding technologies and the rise of ultra-cheap bionetic reactors has made augmentation available to almost anyone.

The truly limiting factors at this stage are the expense of setting up cybernetic shops, genetic sequencers, nanofabs, and the requisite surgical and recovery equipment for installation, followed by the difficulty of learning no only advanced surgery and anatomy, but oncology, septicemology, electronics, repair functionality and nanotheory for those wishing to install it.

Augmetic surgeons are one of the most demanded vocations in several spheres – military, research, corporate, public service, bio-medical and most certainly criminal. Augmetics can and has been perverted or put to ill use, and chopshops and refurb clinics testify to the horrifying reality that people have been murdered to salvage and resell their augmentations.

That being said, the official view of the Alliance R&D corpus is that 'conventional' augmentations and the more advanced bionetic and nanonic augmentations are diverging in focus and scope. More cybernetic work is being done for purely combat related functions, while bionetics and nanonics are branching out into applications useful in intelligence, research, and political arenas. The upshot of this is that despite being more flexible, harder to detect and far more dangerous, it is not bionetic or nanonic augments that are the most heavily restricted.

This is an oversight, as a man with cyberlimbs and sub-dermal armor with a MBW system is certainly a lethal threat, but a lunatic with an implanted pheromone system and blackware nanonics deploying a plague could kill billions.

As such, pursuit of understanding not only the basics of this technology, but the many ways in which an inventive (or deranged) party could modify it to different ends or possibilities is critical to our task of safeguarding the Alliance.

* * *

 **AUGMETICS OVERVIEW**

Cybernetic augmentation is a widespread phenomena that was independently invented by salarians, turians, and humans. At its core, the use of any form of augmentation is to improve or replace the natural abilities of a living being, either due to loss or to increase its performance, falls under the concept.

Cybernetics (like many other technical terms) is often badly misused and over-applied – the proper term would be _augmetics_. Cybernetics refers to the use of artificial physical attachments only.

Augmetics itself is divided into corrective augmetics (those which allow for normal function to a being who has lost said function), adaptive augmetics (those which provide functions that a being does not have in a natural state) and adjustment augmetics (which provide the complete replacement of certain bodily systems.

Augmetics is also divided into lines of application. Cybernetics is the use of artificial physical components – metallic bones, myomer musculature, synthblood, move-by-wire nervous replacements, and the like. Bionetics is the use of specially designed genetically altered organs and tissues. Nanonics is the use of nanotech machines to augment existing function or (in extreme cases) replace entire systems.

Generally speaking, races such as asari and krogan tend to eschew most augmetics, as their natural regenerative systems make it difficult to retain them. Asari regeneration is slow enough (and can be completely stopped by certain drugs, burn scar issue or plasma vaporization) that some asari have limited cyberware, and bionetics can be handled with drug regimens. At least one very famous asari thief and assassin known as Ghost-Step is a full conversion asari cyborg, using unknown technologies.

Krogan, on the other hand, regenerate too fast for almost any such implants to work – only severe acid damage stops krogan regeneration. Additionally, most krogan are simply too poor to afford such work, and much of krogan biology and gland chemistry is still unknown.

Turians, salarians, and some volus make wide use of all forms of augmetics, mostly in military aspects, while the lives of quarians depend on it.

Humanity's relationship with augmetics is, like the quarian, one of need rather than choice.

The average human is sadly ill-equipped to fight the many enemies of the Alliance. In terms of pure physical strength we are over-matched by every species except salarians and hanar. (Volus come from a high-G world – despite their rotund look, under the suits they are very thickly muscled and can probably break your spine.) In speed, salarians and drell make us look like spastic quadriplegics. In terms of sheer endurance, asari, batarians, turians and krogan can shake off wounds that would kill even the toughest human.

What we have that other races do not is three things – a will to die rather than surrender, a thirst for innovation and unpredictability, and a genetic code that is much more flexible in terms of genetic alterations and improvements than most other species.

(As an aside, there is a misconception that 'genetic flexibility' somehow equals greater diversity. This is not the case – while many of the other species in the galaxy are alarmingly homogeneous on the surface, the quarians actually have the most genetic diversity in a genomic sense. Appearance only varies highly in human genetics, it is not a universal trait. In fact, humanity itself had a genetic bottleneck sometime during the Ice Age that reduced our population to well below ten thousand people. The difference between human genes and others is that many alien genomes appear to be heavily designed, and moving away from those baselines in any direction tends to produce incredibly high rates of cancer and genetic disorders or failures. Ours does not display such blatant hacking about.)

Our great equalizer, in many cases, has been augmetic improvements. And it is for this reason that the Alliance spends more on augmetic research and implantation than it does on tanks.

However, there are costs associated with such technology. The primary issue is that the more augmetics loaded into a being, the more likely they are to develop multiple disorders, cancers, and organ failure. For this reason, the legal limit for most augmetics is to replace no more than fifty-four percent of the body with cybernetics and no more than nineteen percent with nanonics or bionetics. Beyond this threshold, the human body rapidly develops cancers, system shock disorders, hemotomas, high blood pressure and capillary rupture, and a host of other disorders.

It is worth noting that this rarely applies to simple replacement for lost limbs, but more complex integrated limb replacements do seem to trigger these effects.

Even with a limit in place, however, one cannot underestimate the sheer value and power of augmetics.

* * *

 **AUGMENTATION GRADES**

The Alliance defines all augmetics on a grading scale based on complexity, legality and capacity. Alpha, Epsilon, Theta, and Omega.

 _Alpha_ grade augmetics are simple civilian systems, not intended for combat and with limited capacity for upgrades. Most limb replacements and simple bionetic organ replacements fall into alpha grade territory.

 _Epsilon_ grade augmetics are professional grade, as often seen in athletes and military soldiers – much better quality and a good capacity for upgrades. Epsilon grade installations require Alliance certification and licenses to install, and all such augmetics must come with a lifetime warranty and maintenance support plan.

Both alpha and epsilon grades are fully legal in both Citadel space and Alliance space, usually without registration.

Any augmetic system that allows for mil-spec style abilities, any nanonic upgrades that have a deployment function, and anything incorporating weapons or defenses of any kind is immediately considered _theta_ grade and requires licensing and registration. Cybernetic enhancement beyond fifty-four percent is illegal in Alliance space without specific permits and clearances.

 _Omega_ grade augmetics are highly experimental special-forces or high mil-spec specialty systems. All blueware, blackware, brain augmentation, and any form of move-by-wire system is considered Omega grade. Currently the Citadel requires omega grade augmetics to come with limiters, and in the Alliance only specially licensed military personnel or Class V citizens (and their knights) can use such.

There is also a final, unofficial grade – street. Usually second-hand and of dubious quality and provenance, some black-market doctors and shops will install such. This cyberware is not customized to the user, has distinctly inoperable interface connections and is unlicensed and likely to fail. It is also dangerous, with between six and eighty five times the chance of causing toxic shock syndrome and a staggering _four thousand percent_ increase in the likelihood of cancers.

* * *

 **CONVERSION RATES AND THRESHOLDS**

There are three different 'levels' of augmentation that you will commonly see applied or talked about : enhanced, partial conversion cyborg, and full conversion cyborg. An 'enhanced' being is anyone with more than fifteen percent of their body mass replaced by cybernetics. Partial conversion is anything over forty percent, and full conversion is technically anything over sixty-five percent.

The highest known conversion rate that has been confirmed is that of a turian, one Rlaxhatis Duris, who passed away six years ago, with a ninety-one percent conversion ratio – only his brain and small portions of his immune and nervous system were not converted.

As a baseline : each limb besides the head is accounted as five percent. Secondary systems (nervous system, immune system, liver, kidneys) are counted at five percent each. Core systems (heart, lungs, and digestive) are at ten percent. Minor aspects (senses and built in armor) are five percent. The head itself is ten percent, and the spine is five percent.

A typical augmented Alliance marine will usually have at least one cybernetic limb, partial sub-dermal armor, cybernetic augmented eyes, and possibly a secondary systems upgrade, which clocks in at twenty to twenty five percent. A Commissar, with all secondary systems and senses augmented, will come in at forty five.

Understanding these thresholds is critical because more often than not they serve as good breakpoints for design planning purposes. With the advent of easier to make augmetics, more recent armor designs now place less importance on armoring the limbs and more on the head and torso, allowing storage of ammo, energy, or other systems in the limb armor. Likewise, there has been an increasing amount of secondary systems upgrades now openly available such as blood filtration units and artificial lungs for eezo miners that blur the conventional lines.

* * *

 **PHYSICAL AUGMENTATION**

Most physical augmentation is done via either cyberware or bionetics, and can be corrective, adaptive or adjustive in scope and purpose. Most augmentations fall into the realm of replacements for limb functions and physical defensive upgrades.

The most common augmentation is the replacement of damaged, destroyed or severed limbs, or the replacement of flesh-and-blood limbs with cybernetic ones for improved combat performance. There are three rough grades of such limb enhancement.

The simplest of these is basically a hydraulic powered artificial limb, made of durable plastics with an nerve-splice cap and a small VI to interpret nervous system commands. A more advanced limb would have hydraulics and titanium bones, under bionetic cloned muscles and skin for a more human look and natural feel. The most advanced cybernetic limbs would be flash-compressed titanium, artificial myomer muscles, optronic nerve systems and a thin bionetic synth-skin covering that is warm to the touch and bleeds but is not 'real'.

Myomer bundles are microscopical carbon-nanofiliment tubes filled with an actistrandular fiber. These fibers are created by mixing specially programmed nanoware 'carvers' with specific polymers within the tubes, carving out a complex weave. An electric current is sent through these tubes, causing the fibers to arrange themselves into a complex nano-structure similar to the proteins myosin and actin that allow biological muscles their movement. It is extremely tough due to its composition and resists heat, cutting and most impacts very well.

Most cybernetic limbs have various options. Almost all of them include gyroscopes for balance, some level of protective plating, and usually a choice of implanted technology (omni-tools, blades, etc). Some cyberlimbs (especially arms) have multiple configuration options. These can trend to the slightly creepy (built in holsters for weapons, or multiple cybernetic arms) to the outlandish (a cybernetic tail to add balance, or medigel auto-injectors in every bodypart.)

Bionetic upgrades tend towards cultural muscle tissues, sometime spliced with alien DNA analogues. DNA analogue mapping (DAM) attempts to recreate alien function by building mirrored amino chains that mimic alien gene structures and incorporates them into existing tissue. Such bionetic muscles repair themselves rapidly, tire more slowly, and are much stronger pound for pound than normal human muscles.

Very few nanonic physical augmentations exist, mostly nanite infusions of hard metals into bone structures or lacing of ligaments and connective tissues with long-strand high-strength polymers.

As far as defensive upgrades go, the most common option is insertion of sub-dermal armor plates. Usually thin sections of military grade surgical steel or Silaris panels, these are inserted under the skin and above the muscular layer, often contoured so as to not be immediately visible to sight or even touch. Bionetic versions include bone weave upgrades to fill in gaps in the rib-cage or toughen existing bone structures. The nanonic version, which is a series of injections that slowly creates barrier layers of hardened metals below the skin, is similar to sub-dermal armor but is more like a mesh, useful for stopping stabs and cuts but not as effective against hard trauma or gunshots.

More outlandish variations exist – armored gorgets to prevent choking, spurs that eject from the heel to stabilize, built in mag-plates on hands or feet for traction, and many others.

At the most extreme levels of physical augmentation are the full conversion options, which basically result in replacing as much flesh as possible with cybernetic systems, backstopped with bionetic organ analogues and nanonic immune and maintenance systems. The turian Final Line soldiers utilize this barbaric method, which results in a being that is little more than a brain, spinal column and some needed organs in a canister slotted into a robotic body.

* * *

 **MENTAL AUGMENTATIONS**

The field of mental augments is much more diverse – and controversial – than physical ones. At the most basic, most mental augmentation draws upon cybernetic quantum storage/retrieval technology, known as quanboxes.

There are four variants of such boxes: grayboxes (which store memories and data), whiteboxes (which are powerful VI systems integrated with the human mind), greenboxes (which are main nervous or autonomous nervous system controllers and balance/nerve integration systems), and the highly illegal redboxes (AI reconstructions of a dead person inserted into living flesh).

Citadel law expressly forbids construction or research into redbox technology. It was originally created by quarians as an analogue to expert decision systems, loaded with destructive-level scans of their elders as they were near death. Redbox AI's believe themselves to be the beings they were in life and experience rampancy even faster than most conventional AI's.

The most common augs are grayboxes and whiteboxes. Many professionals with a need for vast amounts of data storage and memory recall utilize these. However, greyboxes can be heavily encrypted and are also used by covert agents, spies, and other types to temporarily store stolen data, secrets and the like. Whiteboxes are often needed in advanced luminal math, hypercalculus and the calculations used in FTL acceleration coding, augmenting the ability to perform high-order math without needing to rely on external sources.

Greenboxes are rare, mostly used by people who have suffered brain damage that interferes with breathing, moving, speaking, or other actions, or those with extensive nervous system cyberware. Some greenboxes have been hacked to allow uploads of certain purely physical skills such as shooting or martial arts, but these rarely work as well as you might think – the body of the person recording such information is not identical to the user, so balances and some other issues do crop up. One cannot simply 'download' how to do kung-fu, for example, much less pilot a craft.

Even so, it does help speed up training times. The Salarian Union and the VDF both rely heavily on greenboxes to rapidly train troops.

Bionetic augmentations include remapped neural chemical balances for faster memory retention, and several exotic methods based on drell proteins and the like to give near photographic or eidetic memory. Direct bionetic manipulation of intelligence has been heavily pursued but with little actual results, although it has shown very impressive results with vorcha. (Then again, considering what one must deal with in vorcha intelligence levels, any improvement is impressive.)

The only known nanonic augmentations are nanochemical mind locks or devices that allow a being's memories to be remotely wiped, and various augs to provide additional resistance to interrogation or torture. Most of these are highly illegal and have a host of unpleasant side effects.

* * *

 **SENSORY AND NERVOUS SYSTEM AUGMENTATIONS**

Most sensory augmentations are cybernetic or bionetic in nature. Fully half are eye replacements, as cloned eyes do not function correctly. The basic cybernetic eye is merely a high definition camera with a small VI system that creates electrostimulus directly to the optic nerve to produce vision, while more advanced cybernetic eyes can actually mimic how regular vision works with tiny haptic projection insets playing across the retina for those who have no retinal damage.

Bionetic eye upgrades are usually designed to sharpen vision, and are also common – although too expensive to fully replace glasses for most of the working poor, it has eliminated the need for them among the middle class and rich.

Hearing enhancement is less impressive, with most cybernetic systems producing less than quality results due to the complexity of converting sound to nerve impulses. Nanonic treatments to cure deafness by having nanometer scale machines mimic the function of the inner ear have proven successful but outlandishly expensive.

So far, there has been very little success with smell and taste augmentation. Very limited 'reporting' systems exist, but those simply consist of chemical scanners that can detect and identify various trace compounds in the air. Compared to the relatively straightforward nervous system impulses involved in sight and hearing, taste and smell are so intertwined and connected to various parts of the brain that reasonable analogues are few and far between.

Some success has been had by carefully recording the nerve results from healthy beings and hard-mapping them to certain 'detected' values. Even so these are not full sensory capability.

Nervous system augmentations range from the life-saving and benign to the disturbing and utterly revolting. The most common nervous system augs are optronic-relay nerve patches, designed with a bionetic 'patch' to restore destroyed or damaged nerve function in spines or other trunk nerves. (These systems do not work for volus or hanar due to their bizarre nerve construction.) More complicated systems include the so-called 'reflex triggers', that tie in pre-programmed detected events to scripted nervous system overrides using optronic-to-nerve splices.

The most famous and disturbing nervous system upgrades are the move-by-wire system and the ghost-hack system. Move-by-wire systems overlay a secondary nervous relay network using optronics and bionetic nerve splices directly over the main nervous system, hooked into a specialized greenbox that is often tied to visual cyberware and other sensors. MBW, when activated, places the user in a semi-autonomous state of nervous system epileptic seizure. These seizures are managed by the greenbox VI, channeling only desired reflexive motions to the nerves.

Connected to the senses, a move-by-wire system allows nearly instant reaction times and unearthly, almost superhuman reflexes and agility. MBW systems can allow users to easily dodge most incoming fire by instantly modeling the trajectory of firing lines and moving the user to evade them even before the aggressor pulls the trigger. Melee combat is equally frustrating as greenboxes connected to the MBW system can be programmed with the styles and movements of every known form of martial arts and combat, allowing the user to parry or react before the attack even lands.

Since the system relies on optronics and not regular nerves, it also allows near complete immunity to nerve-stun weapons such as neural maces and electroshock tasers. The drawbacks, however, are quite significant. Primarily, placing the body and brain in such a state for any period of time has deleterious effects on sanity, nervous control, and can cause tremors and shakes after any use. Brain damage, epileptic clonal-tonal seizures, and in some cases complete nervous system malfunction can also happen. Cancerous growths and nerve sheathe degradation are extremely common. But the most severe outcome is known as 'nerve interaction separation syndrome', where the body is unable to take control of itself and the system does not cut off. Use of the system in more than short bursts is never recommended, and after thirty minutes it almost invariably causes death by massive cerebral hemorrhage.

Ghost hacking systems are even worse. They are commonly deployed from blackware nanonic attacks (see below) but some are installed into hapless victims who go into cybernetic clinics for other work. The ghost-hack rig is a remote activate and controlled nervous system override, using tiny but numerous optronic-bionetic splice points. A wireless receiver connects this system to a remote user, who can literally puppet the actions of the helpless victim at range. The arch-criminal known as P. is well known to install these systems almost as a standard option on many of his agents. Ghost hacked victims cannot control their own bodies – they could be commanded to pick up a gun and shoot someone or have their lungs turned off remotely and suffocate.

A final (and revolting) cybernetic implant are nerve sensation chips. These are overrides, forcing a nervous reaction to mimic another one. The most commonly used ones are employed by sex-slave rings (or other serious sexual deviants) to transmute pain into pleasure or to force orgiastic states. Sadly this is not limited to humans – some slaver rings chip asari to be locked into a melding state, turian females to be constricted and always in heat, or salarian females to constantly emit mating pheromones.

* * *

 **BRAIN AUGMENTATIONS**

Despite what most people think, quanboxes are not actual brain augmentations. That falls into a very specific range of cybernetic, bionetic and nanonic modifications to the brain. Specifically, mental augmentation are things the user can do – improved memory, for example. Brain augmentation itself is designed to allow the brain to do things it normally cannot do.

Most cybernetic applications involve data and communication. The most simple of these, the internal omniport, acts as a wireless commslink that can transmit 'spoken' thoughts without the need for verbalization. Other common systems include direct interfaces to vehicle or battlesuit VI's or linking systems to literally 'jack in' to a battlesuit.

Balance augmentation is also common with installed or implanted gyroscopes in the limbs being coordinated by master laser-guide implants in the brain. These can work in conjunction with other upgrades like greenboxes, or be fully autonomous.

The most common bionetic applications involve bionetic remapping of certain cerebral tissues to form much tighter and more sense neuron networks, or improve neuron transmission speed. The net result is described as 'as if your head suddenly cleared up'. Thoughts are sharper and easier to follow and ideas seem easier to come up with, although some users report maintaining focus is more difficult.

An offshoot of this technology, known as 'force-focus', is the inverse, allowing highly alert and focused behavior while turned on at the cost of suppressing most higher order thought and memory retention. Some bodyguard units and other protective services install these augs into members.

The other common bionetic upgrade is more along the lines of 'hacks' to the brain's ability to rapidly form neuron memory chains. This is not photographic memory or anything like it – instead, it allows the user to rapidly absorb and process massive amounts of learned data much faster than normal, and retain at least a good memory of such data for some time until it moves into the long-term memory. The AIS uses this heavily, allowing agents to learn language variants or memorize complex plans and intelligence information rapidly.

Thrown into this mix is the disturbing pheromone control system. This is a set of tailored emitters that attempt to transmit positive pheromones during discussions or at will, to convince a listener that the speaker is trustworthy or to induce a sense of amusement or amorous interest. These systems do NOT function on other species besides the one they were designed for, and are of contested and dubious effacity in most cases. Hanar and elcor are utterly immune to such things, and for obvious reasons they don't work on quarians or volus either.

* * *

 **BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATIONS**

There is a reason why the Commissariat is not allowed access to this document.

An offshoot of brain augments is implants designed to control behavior and, in some cases, memory. Although Commissars have a host of implanted cybernetics, bionetic upgrades and gene modifications, the most critical aspect is that each has an implant that modifies behavior according to the requirements of the Commissariat Cadres.

This is combined with training and behavioral modification instruction to ensure Commissariat loyalty and prevent abuses of power. Specifically, Commissars cannot disobey direct orders, cannot take action of any kind against the High Lords without permission, cannot study any form of surgery, cybernetics or bionetic information, and in most cases have their memories managed – negative memories that could cause disloyalty to the Alliance are removed.

Some researchers, particularly ethics types, have a problem with this. Alliance R&D's formal stance on this issue is that the cybernetics were demanded by the Commissariat to avoid them turning into something akin to the Sao Paulo Death Guard. Even so, it is imperative that NO DETAILS of the Commissar cybernetics program are ever leaked to the public, and that no Commissar is ever to come into any technical documentation about how to remove or subvert such programs.

One other, ugly piece of cranial cyberware exists – the cortex bomb. A VI hooked to both an explosive of some sort and a sensory tap that picks up on what the user is saying or doing, the cortex bomb is designed to explode if a threshold is crossed. Depending on the complexity of the VI, the trigger can be almost anything – and depending on the explosive , which can be anything from a bit of C-4 to half a gram of contained antimatter – the results could be devastating.

Cortex bombs are widely used by other races as well as humanity, as well as criminal elements. Pirate pilots who know the secret hideouts used as bases and docks often have them installed to prevent their capture from exposing the entire network. Particularly ruthless corporations on Noveria install them in critical researchers to prevent them from leaving the company prior to contract completion.

* * *

 **ORGAN REPLACEMENTS**

Organ replacement technology is well researched, but still is an area of high experimentation and some level of failure. Most organ replacements are seen either from organ failure, or on full conversion cyborgs.

Cybernetic organ replacements are limited to functional systems. The heart is the most common one, being a simple pump. Kidney and liver functions can be replicated by cybernetic systems as well, although these require regular maintenance to clean out the filtration systems and can cause unpleasant side effects from missing glandular emissions.

Sexual prosthesis also fall into this category, both for transsexual conversion and to help those who have suffered _unfortunate_ accidents.

Bionetic organ replacements are more common – any organ in the body with the obvious exception of the brain can be upgraded or replaced. Digestive systems and skin replacements are the most common. The asari have a very large amount of bionetic work done to transplant erogenous zone tissues to various bodily locales depending on alien preferences, and some human sadomasochists have produced weird substitution effects. And of course, like cybernetics, sometimes these systems are coopted by slavers for use in sex slavery.

Adding additional organs and tying them into the body's systems is much harder but possible – backup hearts, extra adrenal glands and pumps and the like are only the beginning. Some vegans replace their natural digestive system with one equipped to handle cellulose, and a few adventuresome humans have bionetic gill breathing systems for swimming. More outlandish examples – extra arms, legs, eyes, or even sexual organs – are possible but rarely function as intended, as the brain rarely knows how to operate these.

Nanonics does not 'replace' organs, in most cases. But one exception does apply – nanonic blood production systems, or 'synthmarrow', for near-terminal patients with bone marrow disorders or cancers. These operations are a nightmarish marathon, scraping out every bit of bone marrow from the entire body (usually done sectionally, under stasis field segmentation), replacing it with nanofabricating devices that can produce blood cells, and then sealing everything back up. These systems are not perfect, and most eventually break down, but they can give a patient doomed to die in a few months another decade or more of life.

* * *

 **OTHER CYBERNETIC SYSTEMS**

A listing of all known cybernetic upgrades and systems is beyond the scope (or purpose) of this chapter. The Alliance Primer on Technological Augmentation (SA-493) and the Combined Engineering Corps Cybernetics Primer (SA-9993-CECS) are hotlinked in the infoappendix at the end of this guide if you have further queries.

However, a few systems stand out that are not covered above as they don't cleanly fit into neat categories, but are nonetheless important to understand and be prepared for.

 _Omnigel repair systems_ are mostly used by heavy combat types. This is a set of under-armor nozzles connected to an internal tank of omnigel that dispenses it whenever sub-dermal armor or armored core systems are damaged or breached. Note that this omnigel is construction grade, not medical grade – it will not stop bleeding or damage to biological components, but it will patch up damaged cyberware to some degree. It can reattach severed or crushed myomer bundles and patch leaks in hydraulics, but cannot replace, say, a crushed cybernetic eye.

 _Detachable faces_ are a disturbing aspect of complete cybernetic skull replacement. A blank mag-plate fronted head can attach a number of hydraulically driven face plates, enabling a user to change their appearance entirely. Combined with omnigel hair systems, which can produce various styles, grades, and colors of hair at any length in moments, a user could go from a bald-headed black male with a heavy beard to a finely-featured Asian with long hair and no facial hair. Some variants on these systems can even provide basic reshaping of the outlines of shoulders, hips, and chest, to allow a woman to mimic a man's appearance and vice versa. Combined with bionetic skin mods, these can be extremely effective.

 _Direct brain-computer interface link systems_ are incredibly dangerous because they run the risk of allowing a hostile VI to access and possibly overwrite a living being's mind. Even so, these allow incredible feats of hacking and unparalleled speed when accessing computer database systems. Most importantly, these systems can allow someone to be sitting quietly at a cafe, with no visible omni-tool or computer, and hack into a system – making it VERY difficult to physically localize the hacker.

* * *

 **OTHER BIONETIC SYSTEMS**

A number of off the wall bionetic applications (mostly salarian in origin) don't fit any existing category cleanly.

 _Chameleon cloak skin implants_ replace the skin with a bionetic, vat-grown skin surface that can mimic patterns and backgrounds, tied in with an adaptive VI system that monitors and builds a 'surface map' to compare and update with. This is certainly not invisibility, but a chameleon cloak can be maintained for an unlimited time, unlike cloaking systems, and from a distance is strikingly difficult to pick out, especially in natural terrain. More importantly, there is no EM spike showing up when a user cloaks to pinpoint their location. Obviously these systems can incorporate other features, such as making a blue asari appear purple, or a black male appear white.

 _Grafted weapons,_ such as claws tipped with mono-molecular edges, are also a common upgrade. These are contained in natural looking bionetic 'sheaths' to conceal their presence.

 _Synthblood_ is the largest and most important bionetic technology commonly used, an artificial substance with genetically crafted improvements – higher oxygenation capacity, strong anti-viral or anti-bacterial agents, high-effect clotting agents, and the like. These can be manufacture far more quickly than natural blood plasma and stock can be gathered and assembled, and can even be made in the field by the proper bio-medical creches with a sufficient supply of resources and omnigel. Synthblood is very commonly used in full conversion cyborgs.

 _Bionetic Symbiotes_ are one of the most frightening developments we've seen in bionetics. These are batarian in origin, and display capabilities that baffle most bioengineers who've examined them. There are several common variants, most of which attach permanently to the user and subsist on the food and oxygen the host provides, while in turn providing a benefit of their own.

All symbiotes put extreme stress on the body and have a tendency to burn the user out. Most users who wear them will die within fifteen to twenty years of acquisition – then again, most who choose to live this dangerously will die long before that point from combat in any case. They require a high-caloric diet and some require special drug supplements. If the symbiote is killed systemic shock and sepsis will almost certainly kill the host. Surgical removal is possible but ends in death more than half the time.

Durasyms are symbiotes that boost physical durability, hardening skin and muscle to near metallic toughness. This results in a loss of speed and reflexes, but allows an unarmored host to bounce pistol fire and most melee attacks and take highly reduced damage from rifles. It is not sufficient to stop shotguns or heavy weapons, or any sort of projectile weapon at point blank range, but combined with even light armor can make a tough foe almost impossible to drop through long range fire.

Ragesyms augment muscle strength, adrenaline release, pain suppression and overall speed (but not reflexes or agility). They inject a series of what appear to be highly distributed steroidal and agonal substances into the body and interfere with pain perception to a high degree. A human equipped with a a ragesym was able to beat a krogan to death in hand-to hand combat (albeit dying afterwards from internal bleeding and a broken skull), and a krogan equipped with one managed to defeat a battlesuit with nothing more than a kinetic hammer.

Juicesyms are the most rare and are highly illegal in the Alliance, and of dubious legality in Council space. These inject a number of performance boosting substances, including various amphetamines, hallucinogens, pain suppressants, blood clotting agents, some form of PCP-analogue, and huge, possibly near-lethal doses of synthetic epinephrine. They combine to turn the user into a raging combat psychopath, capable of shrugging off terrible wounds and demonstrating terrifying strength, speed, and stamina. We have limited footage of batarian Imperial Guard elites with such symbiotes engaging a hastitim strike-force. They were capable of weathering even heavy weapons fire and direct hits from a sniper rifle to overrun the turians and rip them limb from limb. Juicesyms are hard to find outside of the Terminus and Traverse, and the Alliance plans to try to acquire one for dissective research soon.

* * *

 **OTHER NANONIC SYSTEMS**

Nanonic systems emerged only in the past fifteen years. Most of these still revolve around supporting more extreme cybernetic or bionetic implants. There is, for example, no such thing as a 'nanonic replacement arm', or 'nanoeyes'. Nor are there purely nanonic organ replacements.

What we find instead is nanonic compromise systems, where they upgrade existing functions and add new functionality. The other major impact nanonics has made – blackware – is covered in its own section.

 _Nanorepair systems_ are the most commonly seen system, although these are staggeringly expensive to install, maintain and operate. Microscopic surgical robots can repair damaged tissues and blood vessels, break up clots before they cause strokes, and clear out kidney stones and other minor ailments. Most such systems work from a central canister of nanites implanted in the back, and these have no self-replication functions – when they run out the system can provide no more repairs. Repair systems are VI managed through wireless, and are vulnerable to shutdown (or worse, malfunction) if exposed to EMP.

 _Nanofiltration systems_ are implanted in 'filter trays' most commonly in the lungs, kidneys, liver and in some cases stomach. They aid the body in filtration of toxins and contaminants. All quarians have extensive nanofiltration work done, the largest ongoing expense the Migrant Fleet has after eezo and fuel, due to their weakened immune systems. More than a few alcoholic rich kids have these installed to prevent themselves from wrecking their liver.

 _Blood management systems_ are more extreme versions of nanorepair systems, which maintain the pulmonary systems – cleaning out plaque buildups, repairing worn vessel walls, leaky valves, or torn heart muscle. These systems can also be programmed to temporarily boost oxygenation or immune response, and alter clotting rates.

 _Artificial Immune Systems_ are very rare and currently too expensive for anyone not a millionaire to even think of affording. These are microscopic robots that mimic and augment the natural nervous system, connected to a medical VI database with a complete mapping of valid cell proteins and the like. Extremely valuable for sufferers of AIDS and lupus, these systems can become lethal if hacked or if they malfunction. After the quarians joined the Council, the Sirta Foundation gifted them everything humanity knew about such systems. Many quarian outcasts have turned to crime to afford the cost of buying such things, as without them they are extremely vulnerable to suit breaches.

 _Anti-Cancer Systems_ are the most highly advanced nanonic system on the market, pioneered less than a year ago by a Nobel-Manswell prizewinning team of human scientists working with salarians and Citadel hanar. The ACS requires a fully genomic map of the patient, with analysis of the cancer types and locations, and then is implanted. Nanobots devour cancerous cells, using the material to make more of themselves as well as heal damage or remove toxins caused by the cancer. The system is not effective in extremely advanced Stage IV cancers, but even early stage IV brain, lung, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers can be beaten back and cured with this system. At six million credits for just the genomic mapping and twenty million for the installation, as well as a million or more a year for maintenance, however, it is beyond the price range of most ill people.

There is a movement by certain medical corporations to develop a 'mobile' or temporary version that can be used inside a clinic on a more limited basis. If so, these would be much cheaper (if less effective) and could probably eliminate lower tier cancers altogether.

 _Nanosurgical 3D printing systems_ are, at this stage, purely prototypes. These have VI medical databases as well as cybernetic or bionetic installation requirements, and the ultimate goal is to allow the in-field installation or removal of cybernetic or bionetic implants and upgrades, and the ability to send instructions wirelessly to a system and have it flawlessly perform complicated surgical procedures inside the patient without a doctor needing to be involved. Some systems are in use for clinical trials, but so far nothing has been authorized for open market sales.

* * *

 **BLUEWARE BIOTIC AUGMENTS**

Biotics relies on both the natural nervous system of the user and their ability to generate bio-electrical energy (which powers your nervous system) to affect and control their biotics. As there is no natural method for humans, salarians, turians and others to 'control' this directly, the very first cybernetic implant that incorporated biotics was the bio-amp.

Blueware is named as such because any cybernetic implants that replace the nervous system or limbs require eezo-channeled, electroconductive optronics made with metallic elements in order for biotics to function. All such devices must also be resistant to the slight static charge biotics generates, and cannot ground the user or rely on mass effect fields (to avoid resonance).

Blueware, as it incorporates eezo to magnify the more feeble bio-electrical field of a user, is staggeringly expensive. Most conventional cybernetic systems have blueware equivalents.

A few specialty pieces of blueware exist. The most common are barrier augmenters (which increase the generated strength of a biotic's barrier) and pulse stabilization devices (which counter pulse dissapators that disrupt biotics).

On paper, blueware is no more than biotic-adapted cybernetics. In practice, however, each piece has to be custom designed for the user, tuning it to their body's currents, their biotic field, and a host of other subtle adjustments. Most blueware is so tightly integrated into the remaining nervous system that other nervous system upgrades must be made at the time of implantation or not at all.

Currently, there are a host of reasons why some biotics utilize blueware. With advanced VI management and enough quality customization, a biotic with blueware experiences much less drain and need for cooldown than a natural biotic, while being able to shape biotic fields much faster and with sharper focus. The sheer amount of eezo in the system of a blueware cyborg tends to enhance the sheer hitting power of some high order biotics.

* * *

 **BLACKWARE NANONICS**

The final – and most dangerous – type of augmentation is a style of nanonics called blackware. Blackware is so named because it incorporates highly illegal black nanites – self-replicating without limit, uncontrolled by anything but onboard programming and encrypted wireless, with no external shutoff and EMP hardened.

Black nanoware is outlawed in most cases out of a fear of 'gray goo' scenarios, where runaway nanonic conversion consumes entire planets. Such scenarios are possible but highly unlikely. What is likely, of course, is a minor outbreak that kills thousands or millions.

Blackware weaponizes unlimited replication.

At its core, blackware incorporates a super-powerful version of nanorepair systems, artificial immune systems, and extreme levels of tissue lacing with exotic elements. Alongside this is the incorporation of a nanoconstruction kit that can build almost anything with enough resources, plans, and time.

A blackware equipped terrorist could walk into a target site with no armor, weapons, explosives, or tools. Deploying his nanobots, he could effectively create and uparmor himself in thick combat armor, manufacture heavy weapons and explosives, create various tools to break into areas, or simply concoct a virulent virus and spread it as he goes, immune due to his own artificial immune system. All he'd need is a little eezo, and a VI with all the designs.

In open battle, such operatives are worse – rapidly healing from even being blown to pieces, as long as the nanites can find energy and resources, killing such a being is extremely difficult. As nanonics continues to evolve, the idea that blackware could incorporate 3D printing systems is very worrisome.

The most insidious and disgusting use of this power is to implant ghost-hacking systems into targets that can be puppetted remotely by the blackware user. The sheer damage that such an attacker could cause is terrifying.

This is of course ruinously expensive. The cost of such high order nanonics, tailoring to the user, the cost of a VI or AI to manage it all, and the requisite surgical equipment required means any such system runs into the low billions to implement. It is therefore thankfully (we hope) out of the reach and price range of terrorists, criminals, and the like. Unfortunately, that does not mean such groups could not be gifted such products by corporate or governmental clients.

Blackware requires a very powerful VI (or AI) in order to manage and control all design functionality, but otherwise is only controlled by highly encrypted emissions polling between nanites and the control unit itself. This encrypted transmission can have keys in the low millions, making hacking it impossible – and in the absence of a signal from the VI or AI, the nanites will simply continue what they were told to do. The control unit is often implanted in such a way that reaching it would detonate a cortex bomb or other method of destroying, leaving no way to shut off the nanites.

They can be destroyed by breaching plasma, high energy ion blasts, or strong enough cosmic radiation, but in low-tech areas of the galaxy they are nearly indestructible.

Officially, the Alliance has outlawed all use, production and shipment of blackware and black nano in general, as has the Citadel. In reality, the AIS has a group of deep cover agents that regularly utilize this technology in defense of our freedoms. It is strongly suspected that the Salarian Group of Zero and the Turian Deathwatch also use this technology.


	4. Reaper Tech - Horror

**An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe**

* * *

 **A/N:** _Creepypasta Express, all aboard._

* * *

 **From: Dr. Em. Gareth von Alte, Lead Researcher, Primary Anomalies, Ache Lamao**

 **To: Col. Nyomba Sahu, Project Security, Ahaltocob**

My good Colonel,

We have finished the requested workups on the materials recovered from the site on Noveria. Commander Shepard and her goons wrecked most of it, but we have recovered enough sequenced DNA that recreating a rachni queen is within a ninety percent probability of success.

The decision on whether or not to proceed with that line is up to the HLoS, of course. Attached are preliminary design templates for phase one implementation.

The machinery used to control and alter the queen was too damaged to repair or replicate, but copious notes and design documents were found on-site and we are in the process of examination of these now. Many of them refer to 'nanothreads' and 'Black Pyramids.'

We've already received authorization to work on the second, but we have not received any replies to our inquiries regarding Anomalous Object 44. Given that Benezia is very dead and is the only extant source of information on enhancements needed for Project [REDACTED], I would politely request you immediately pull AO-44 from stasis and transfer the subject to us immediately.

I will liaison with you directly in regards to AO-83 once you have completed your own analysis. Once we've received both, we can begin work on the rachni immediately.

With respect,

Gareth von Alte

* * *

 **From: Col. Nyomba Sahu, Project Security, Ahaltocob**

 **To: Dr. Em. Gareth von Alte, Lead Researcher, Primary Anomalies _,_ Ache Lamao**

Doctor Emeritus,

Attached are the primary sensor scans and related nanoprobe core samples from Artifact 5399-B, classified as the corpse of Benezia T'Soni, tagged as AO-44.

Primary summary of the results is as follows:

Body is maintained at a temperature of thirty-one (31) degrees C, by method unknown.

Magnetic fields in excess of four point seven (4.7) Gau have been detected at all times from the corpse.

Cellular decay expected from time of death to stasis immersion not found.

Lividity normal.

AO-44, upon arrival, was missing most of the external bodily layers of skin common to asari, over forty-seven percent of the upper and lower body. The entirety of the chest cavity was vaporized, leaving behind only a fragment of the heavily reinforced spinal column to hold the object together. The left arm and portions of the left hip region were also missing.

The corpse displayed severe battle damage, including several third-degree (tissue) and fourth-degree (burn to bone) level injuries. All flesh was riddled with artificial thread composite materials on the nanometer scale, described by the analysis of Lt. [REDACTED] as far in advance but otherwise identical in function to those created by the [REDACTED] Corporation as described in UI-30923.

 _(Aside: All known employees and researchers of [REDACTED] Corporation with the exception of Lt. [REDACTED] were executed by Commissariat under the Crimson Protocol, with High Lord approval. All physical assets of the company were seized under the Treasonous Properties Act of 2099 and any anomalous items moved to Site 57-A. A summary of findings is attached as Object Rho-F at datapoint 505.43.12 on Black Network Node 7)_

AO-44 regenerates constantly at a rate of (if uninterrupted) point five (0.5) mm per week from all eroded or damaged surfaces. The state of regeneration increases if exposed to any form of energy – sunlight, heat, movement, radiation, or direct contact with any living or dead organic material.

AO-44 must be stored in a stasis tube with a lining of corrosion-resistant nanofabrics tailored to specification nine. Any other materials will be slowly consumed and broken down by AO-44 and used to further repair the corpse.

AO-44 scans indicate the subject is dead, yet no biological degradation has been noted. Core samples and blood samples indicate there is absolutely zero biological activity occurring in AO-44. Additionally, all samples have come back one hundred percent sterile.

Microorganisms that make contact with AO-44 are immediately broken down into amino acid base types unfamiliar to us and used to repair DNA strands within AO-44 cells. Once this is completed, nanothreads inject a substance (AO-44-Alpha) into each cell which seems to be some form of preservative.

EECKG e-scans of the corpse indicate signals equivalent to asari brainwave activity in the forward and 'seaward' nodes of the brain. Specifically, these node sites correlate to immense mental strain, pain, and horror. Additionally, metallic substructures within the brain and tied into the spinal region of AO-44 have been identified as possible receiving antenna.

AO-44's containment chamber is placed within redundant stacked isolation chambers and Faraday cages, inside a magneto-fluid disruptive cyclical storage facility.

It is currently my belief that AO-44 is not biologically 'alive,' but is not technically 'dead' either.

It is currently my belief that AO-44 is attempting (whether voluntarily or not) to repair itself to full functionality, with the express intent of reviving Benezia T'Soni.

It is my current belief that, given the method of her death and based on additional information gathered from the corpse of Saren Arterius, as well as statements recorded and made by Baroness Sara Shepard prior to the latter's death, that AO-44 is suffering from Third Stage Thanoptis Syndrome, which was called 'indoctrination' by Dr. Thanoptis during primary interrogation.

Thanoptis Syndrome is an anomalous condition consisting of a hypersonic somatic component, a memetic-cognitohazardous 'transmissible' element of undetermined carrier and emissive capacity, and a universally infective Class Omega black nanoware agent tentatively classed as Reaper Substance 6. The result of TS is broken into stages. Stage Three subjects are not in control of their own bodies and in many cases suffer hypoxia-like deleterious effects.

Regardless, in life, AO-44 was one of the most frightening combatants alive, and whatever happened to make her augmented only improved that. I should not need to remind you she killed six Spectres, several dozen other heavily armed combatants, and stood off one of the most skilled blade-mistresses in the galaxy, as well as a Phase 2 Commissar, a powerful biotic, and Sara Shepard in close quarters combat.

 _And was not defeated._

Based on this, your request for cessation of stasis containment and transfer of AO-44 to your project is denied.

I have already run this up the chain of command, and both Admiral Vandefar and Colonel Hathar feel it is unwise. Director Colqua's inquiry into the necessity of further research has been denied.

The projected result of removal of AO-44 from containment and exposure to a non-secured environment has been full physical restoration in six days, eleven hours, and thirty minutes. Given the sensor readings from the brain and the fact that Benezia was reported to be 'struggling' against a possessing presence that had commandeered her body, any use of Procedure Tammuz-6 is… unwise.

I am willing to discuss particulars only in-person, as the conversation would, by force, require violation of the restrictions of Thaumiel-level or possibly Gehinom-level intelligence and reports.

Until then, AO-44 is to remain in stasis lockdown at all times, with multiple redundant security measures that will hurl the asteroid containing it into a black hole if containment is breached. We already had one bad scare with the survivors of the AIS Team that hit Black Site 6; _I will not allow another on my watch_ _._

Sincerely,

Colonel Nyomba Sahu

* * *

 **From: Director Sandra Colqua, Primary Anomalies, Ache Lamao**

 **To: Col. Nyomba Sahu, Project Security,** **Ahaltocob**

Colonel,

I was disappointed to discover that you denied transfer of AO-44 to my project team. While I understand your concerns regarding possible complications from researching the subject, I assure you I am not foolish enough to allow a complete recovery of the subject.

Additionally, I was under the impression from the initial briefing that AO-44's rate of regeneration was measurable in nanometers and not millimeters, and that estimates of the object's revival was on the order of thousands of years, not six days.

While I understand the need for some level of obfuscation given the… unpleasant discoveries at Sirta, I do not think either project is served by such reticence to cooperate.

For the moment, however, I have been told that, as you mentioned to Doctor von Alte, the HLoS have declined future investigation into AO-44. That being said, we still have not received your initial analysis and observations on AO-83.I would appreciate this report at your earliest convenience, as it will be important to determine what level (if any) of emphasis we should put on such objects in connection with the rachni project.

I will be in contact with Admiral Vandefar at the end of the month, and I would hope to have the report in-hand by that time.

Sincerely,

Director Sandra Colqua

* * *

 **From: Col. Nyomba Sahu, Project Security, Ahaltocob**

 **To: Director Sandra Colqua, Primary Anomalies, Ache Lamao**

Director,

I understand your concerns in regards to AO-44. However, the primary reason for denial of research is that the rate of regeneration surged from the low baseline set at recovery of the corpse, to the current levels after the initial analysis bombardment.

Given the information provided by Lt. [REDACTED] and his expertise with nanothreading, it was decided that any further tampering is simply too dangerous to contemplate at this time.

As to your other request, we've reviewed all of the artifacts and primary anomaly scans from Artifact Set 7732-Z-Rho, codenamed 'Black Pyramid,' flagged as AO-83. I apologize for the delay, but as you will see, we had to take a great many precautions in investigating the item.

Please note the inventory taken by the inserted observer agents on Noveria indicated the recovery of four such devices. We have only been able to account for three. The location and status of the fourth is unknown – it is possible it was given over to an unknown third party at some point prior to recovery cataloging.

As neither Project Ahaltocob nor Project Ache Lamao had assets on-site at Noveria until sixty-eight hours after the event, it is also possible that Citadel investigators took possession of the device.

Along with AO-83, we have taken the bodies of three asari Triune Unity cultists that seem to have been affected by the device, as well as two more killed in action. The three corpses were already autopsied and analyzed by, based on materials covered from Noveria, Benezia's own forces. Research notes and the contents of data drives recovered from the site have been filed as AO-83 supplemental at datapoint 501.7.11 on Black Network Node 4.

The delay in obtaining these corpses (it has been forty-seven days since the end of the Benezia Incident) has been explained to me as necessary obfuscation. The Council is unaware of their provenance and believes them destroyed.

Primary summary of the results is as follows:

The device itself is composed of an anomalous metallic substance that does not correspond to any known or theoretical material. Sampling devices and destructive testing (nanoprobe, laser probe, drill, E-0 directed penetration, kinetic chisel, explosives, direct hit from tactical nuclear device, direct hit with M/AM torpedo spread) were complete failures.

Spectrographic analysis is inconclusive. Material analysis via chemical or bombardment methods inconclusive. Materials have superficial resemblance to materials recovered at Eingana (particularly Series 9, 11, and 15), and thus have been tentatively classified as related to the Gehinom-level anomalies codenamed 'Reapers.'

Device emits radiation in exotic waveband spectra and is exothermic at thirty-nine (39) to forty – one (41) Celsius. The exotic energy emitted is not of a type we can easily typify. Exposure to film time delay indicates that emission rates are not aligned with expected time/emission curves, with a slight possibility that the waves themselves are either symmetry-broken or out of phase with our normal flow of time.

Two of the three devices are dark and inactive, although still emitting energy. The third device (removed by Black Network Operations Team with authorization 45030-Pizarro) had counter sunken bas-relief panels displaying unknown symbology glowing with red light.

This device is now with your project. I advise caution.

As no form of energy scanning or physical interaction had the slightest effect on any of the devices, we cannot speculate as to purpose, construction, or even age. Initial density testing would indicate that, despite the light weight of the devices when carried, they may actually be some phase-shifted or stabilized form of degenerate matter.

Further analysis, including but not limited to utilization of devices derived from the Mars Archives or other Pizarro or Tammuz Protocols, is not recommended at this time.

Secondary analysis is based entirely on reaction to the device.

Long-term exposure testing to battery Alpha (lobotomized humans), Beta (sedated humans), Charlie (unrestricted humans), and Delta (cybernetically enhanced humans) shows minor differences. Group Alpha had zero deviations from control group, as did Delta. Both Beta and Charlie showed small variations in brain chemistry at six hours and lesions consistent with TS in just under forty hours.

Please note: this is much faster than expected rates of Thanoptis Syndrome based on information from Doctor Thanoptis. Also note that the unidentifiable memetic-cognitohazardous 'transmissible' element of undetermined source that is hypothesized to be the cause of TS may be the exotic waveforms from the pyramid.

Examination of AO-83-A, -B, and -C (asari corpses) revealed a great deal of concerning information. All three asari showed heavy lesions in the brain consistent with late state TS. All three asari showed increased muscle mass, heavier iron concentrations in the bones, enlargement of the asari electrical organ, and moderate to severe internal bleeding from several sites in the digestive and respiratory tract.

Initial sectional autopsy and necropsy indicates these sites are infested with nanoscale materials, possibly related to the black-nano substance described by Doctor Thanoptis. There is also limited nanoscale replication of materials as noted in UI-30923.

All scans of AO-83 related victims (asari or human) indicate that a solid steel wall over a third of a meter thick does not stop effects of the process. Additionally, gross sectional analysis of a fresh corpse deposited within five meters of the active pyramid and left for seventy-two hours shows conversion to huskified form in sixty-five hours, eleven minutes.

Additional scan information is impossible to obtain at this time. The active unit has been removed by orders of the High Lords and remanded to Project Ache Lamao, and I trust you will share any additional findings with us.

Requests to cross-test AO-83 with AO-44 (Benezia T'Soni) will be denied.

Requests to proceed to level three live behavior testing is also denied.

Recommendations: Given the likely relation of AO-83 with GOI-545 ('Reapers') and likelihood that complete conversion would result in uncontrolled creation of additional beings like AO-44, the devices should be rendered inert.

All three devices should be flash-encased in point five (0.5) meters of charged particulate foam, then sealed inside containers of titanium, specifically drums (series four). The drums should be filled with inert material that blocks or weakens most emissive activity, such as lead. Drums should then be inserted into isolation chambers built into Remote Hot Lab storage site Alpha ('Sheol') and monitored remotely. Recommendations for Alpha storage should incorporate level six Faraday cage devices and magnetic disruptive fields at all times.

 _Under no circumstances do I recommend any further experimentation with these devices._

While I understand you have been tasked with replication of the rachni and that these devices were involved, my gut feeling is using them will only result in a catastrophic failure of containment regardless of preparations for such.

All sub-files have been transmitted to your systems, Director. Please reach out to me with any further concerns.

Sincerely,

Colonel Nyomba Sahu

* * *

 ** _From: SYSTEM_ALERT – CLEARANCE THAUMIEL TRANSMISSIBLE CONTENT_**

 ** _To: Adm. G. Synthia Vandefar, Project Director, Ahaltocob_**

 ** _Re: Report Request_**

 _Admiral,_

 _Provide a summary of GOI-545 research materials, tech assessment, and threat summary at the earliest possible date._

* * *

 **From: Adm. G. Synthia Vandefar, Project Director, Ahaltocob**

 **To: HLoS-THREAT ASSESSMENT, High Lords of Sol**

Gracious Lords,

Our review of all materials forwarded to this project in relation to GOI-545 ('Reapers') is now completed. You may review, at your leisure, the bulk of the materials themselves, but summary communiques cover the relevant points for my assessments.

Our initial assessment is as follows:

 **One** **:** GOI-545 is a highly advanced race of either pure AI or possibly cybernetic origins, with estimated societal age in excess of sixty million years. This is based on both strata-defined archaeological recoveries of distinctive materials used by this GOI, as well as fragmentary information from chemical analysis of damaged materials.

Addendum: GOI-545 appears to operate for short spans of time at intervals of thirty-five to fifty thousand years, and maintains neither an extant presence nor permanent habitation on any world. The paucity of archaeological evidence of their existence lends credence to the theory by Dr. Liara T'Soni-Shepard that GOI-545 is removing such material on purpose.

 **Two** **:** GOI-545 has technology we are currently unable to comprehend, much less replicate or devise counters to. This includes, but is not limited to, hydromagnetodynamic weapons systems capable of destroying dreadnoughts with a single shot, phased energy shields with a rating in the zeta range, FTL speeds three to four times that of even high efficiency scout engines, the ability to jump to any relay from any point in space, and advanced nanocomposite and materials technology.

It is likely, based on certain information given to us by Major-Commander Shepard, that most if not all mass effect technology, including mass relays and the Citadel, are also of GOI-545 origins.

 **Three** **:** The most powerful weapons systems we have on-hand, Kyle-class degenerate matter torpedoes, are the only weapon so far that has shown to have an effect. Likewise, only the 'Ancient'-class weapons of the asari dreadnought did any significant damage to AO-77 ('Nazara').

This is a weakness that must be explored. However, our current operations are exposed and will likely be a primary target in any conflict. Given the vulnerability of our mining operations, I recommend setting up secondary production facilities in isolated systems and publicly declaring the Kyle project shut down.

 **Four** **:** GOI-545 technology is unsafe to utilize or research in any fashion. All elements of it appear to be constantly emitting a waveform emission connected to Thanoptis Syndrome. Despite over seven months of attempts, we have neither been able to block nor reverse this exposure – the only safety is distance.

Addendum: If research must be conducted, it should be via remote control mechs with zero VI/AI and with Class 11 hazard precautions. We have already noted seventeen cases of stage one Thanoptis Syndrome in the tech teams working on items recovered from the wreck of AO-77.

 **Five** **:** The implications of GOI-545's technology level are made more troubling by the very high possibility that AO-77 ('Reaper' warship 'Nazara') was not a unique device and was attempting to somehow summon more of its kind to our galaxy.

In light of the findings above, I am unsure at the current juncture of the proper actions to take. My team is moving with alacrity to attempt to find countermeasures of any kind to the issue, as well as assist with the examination of the FTL engine given to us by the Council (AO-91), since most of the tech team studying it is now suffering TS or is insane.

I realize this is of little use, gracious Lords, in attempting to devise a strategy for dealing with this menace, but empty promises do not make us any safer.

I can state with confidence three actions we should undertake immediately:

First, creation of scanners and devices that can detect Thanoptis Syndrome. It is clear now that at least part of this GOI's playbook is the use of coerced assets, and given the damage done by Benezia and Saren, keeping an eye out for any additional agents is wise.

The Citadel is in the process of including such sensors at key locations and I recommend the same. These should be incorporated into any study or research facilities working on GOI-545 items, on all command-level systems, and on all government structures linked to the chain of command or the High Lords.

Second, I would strongly suggest creation of a task force of prepared operatives. Based on exposure testing, Colonel Sahu is confident that full conversion human cyborgs with sealed environmental systems have the highest resistance to conversion by GOI-545 technology. Utilization of such assets to recover or destroy additional technology finds would be important.

Finally, before utilizing any technology derived from study of GOI-545, it should be tested extensively with penal populations to ensure there is no latent ability to cause additional cases of Thanoptis Syndrome.

In regards to the materials we have on-hand (AO-44, AO-83, and AO-91), I cannot recommend further study of the first two. Benezia's corpse is a ticking time bomb, given our scan results, and the Black Pyramids are both cognitohazardous and completely impenetrable. Unless the intent is simply to stick them in a lab somewhere to determine how badly things can go wrong if they are unconstrained, I cannot perceive any possible value in further study.

The FTL engine, while dangerous to research, should provide technical results that are free of such issues.

I'm aware there is a great deal riding on this research and the argument that if we do not understand the enemy we cannot defeat them. I have been a scientist all my life, and I have striven to adhere to both the scientific method and a rational viewpoint in all my endeavors.

So it is with reluctance, but sincerity, that I admit this technology frightens me. That our best and brightest cannot grasp it. That there is a level of, and I hesitate to use this word, malevolence inherent in every line, every design, every outcome of what this technology does.

Based on what we know of GOI-545's motivations from the words of Major-Commander Shepard, I cannot recommend the use of any of this technology in pure form and only the greatest of restraint and caution in researching anything related to GOI-545.

With reverence and submission,

Admiral Synthia Vandefar, KoUE

* * *

 **From: Adm. G. Synthia Vandefar, Project Director, Ahaltocob**

 **To: Lieutenant Jason Valthez, Researcher,** **Ahaltocob**

Lieutenant,

Review the preceding materials and prepare a summary of the best methods of countering or destroying a nanothreaded creature. Please keep in mind this position paper will more than likely determine the path of research involving these things.

Sincerely,

Admiral Synthia Vandefar, KoUE

* * *

Jason Valthez read through the back-and-forth emails and then set his padd down, shaking his head. "Rachni?"


	5. AI Tech - Disgust

**_An Engineer's Guide to the Technology of the Mass Effect Universe:_**

* * *

 _ **A/N:** I haven't eaten the gingerbread hat... yet. _

* * *

Jason Valthez exhaled slowly, still clutching his shotgun tightly as he panned his vision across the room. Acrid, metallic smelling smoke and the raw scent of burnt metal and ozone soured his expression as he rose slowly from his crouch.

Two marines lay dead next to him, blood slowly leaking from wounds to their legs and chest. A half dozen more lay sprawled in a messy heap in front of the now deactivated robot, which did not move.

Jason tapped his comm-link. "Unit Burkert-1 to Big Mama, how copy, over?"

He winced at the burst of static over the implanted comm bead in his ear before the powerful voice of Colonel Sahu came across the line. _"Good copy, over. Status?"_

Valthez sighed. "Burkert-1 to Big Mama. We have seven kilo actual, four wounded. Nine effective. Primary target is neutralized. I repeat, seven killed. Request additional forces."

The voice of the colonel was cool and dispassionate, but Jason thought he could hear a hint of sadness in the hard words. _"Big Mama to Burkert-1, understood. Unit Dumézil-2 is closing on your position, ETA six minutes. Please prep and arm the bombardment charges."_

"Ack, Big Mama. Burkert-1 out." He clicked off and glanced to his left, finding the stolid form of Senior Chief Bretman. "Chief, police this site up, and get our dead out into the hallway. Have the corpsman ready to brief medical teams on the condition of our wounded, and have Sergeant Khody bring me the charges."

The chief, a big man, thick with slabs of muscle that made his otherwise diminutive height less of an issue, nodded. "Already have a detail doing the dead and wounded up, sir. Brought the charges with me. Glad to see this fucking thing put down."

Jason nodded absently as he took the aramid fiber bag holding the explosive charges. "I know, Chief. A year ago I'd have pissed myself going into a dark hole like this."

He swept his shotgun around towards the war machine on the ground, the under barrel light playing over the still smoking wreckage. "How in the fuck did _Ache Lameo_ let their pet AI get into a fucking YMIR?"

The Chief shrugged, watching as Jason knelt to place charges near the heavy metal box against the far wall, faint blue light flickering from it as he did so. "Bit above my paygrade to start asking questions like that, sir. The Ayys don't have a real good track record with some of their field work, you ask me. You know, with the whole mess on Terra Nova... the clusterfuck on Parsial VI... the hot lab on Noveria..."

Valthez grunted, placing another bomb. "Makes you wonder if the rumors about them being an old Cerberus cell have any truth. I get we need to keep things quiet, but this is still their mess, so why are we having to tidy up after them? Is that our job, cleaning up after morons?"

A voice lanced through the smoke and darkness. "No, Lieutenant. You get to clean up after them. I get to solve the originating problem in a more permanent fashion. Report."

Jason stood and turned around, meeting the cold features of Agent Rho. In the year and a half since his forced assignment to Project _Ahaltocob,_ he had met some truly frightening members of the Alliance military – the good colonel Sahu hardly the least of them. That was to be expected in Alliance R&D, where science officers the letters really stood for 'Robbing and Demolitions'.

Valthez could understand using military force to... acquire certain information, technology or the like. The asari did it, the salarians did it, the turians bragged about it... and so on and so forth. Most of the time the soldiers were older and clearly expendable – but most of said older soldiers had combat skills that made up for their age.

Agent Rho, on the other hand, was something else entirely.

If the the Alliance had a boogeyman, Rho met the description. Officially, he was just a marine captain. Unofficially, he was Admiral Vandefar's hatchet man. Defectors, traitors, and the like were never turned over to the Commissars.

They simply vanished. Rho had 'accidented' a number of traitors, incompetents and outright idiots in Alliance R&D in the mere year and a half Valthez had served - God only knew how many more he'd killed.

The question on the lieutenant's mind was asking why he was here.

He knelt back down, setting another charge as he spoke. "Sir. Situation is secure. The YMIR killed several civilians unaffiliated with the project and inflicted heavy casualties onto my unit. We've deactivated the device and I am in the process of planting charges per orders from Colonel Sahu. At this time, the bugnet is clean, no signs the AI tried to rabbit, and all other computational devices in the facility have been destroyed."

Rho nodded. "Good. But I am only interested in the team that was in charge of the AI. They were supposed to have provided you with support, the fact they are not here is alarming."

Valthez stood slowly. "My apologies, sir, I was unclear. The team already found the bodies of the morons who thought putting a crazy AI into a giant killer robot was a good idea. The AI killed them. Native animals got to them before we even dropped, so not much for you to do."

He met the gaze of Rho clearly. "I have already reported this to the colonel...and Admiral Vandefar."

One of the marines snorted, but Rho held his gaze for a long moment before giving a slow, lazy smile. "I see. It is a pity none of them survived to provide... context to this 'mess', as you put it. This cell was supposed to be constructing back-stops for EDI to test in a combat scenario, but this went well beyond what they were instructed to do. It seems the director may need another lesson in... restraint."

Valthez shrugged, and the captain sighed. "For now, your job is simple. Extract the AI core uplink from the YMIR, then blow this place up. Once that is done, board transport back to Vallens Spaceport. A member of _Ahaltocob_ will take the core off your hands at that time."

He turned to go, then paused, his cool voice menacing and amused. "And lieutenant... do be careful with that core. I understand about the 'morons' from _Ache Lameo_ being dead. But if the core were to be damaged or destroyed before we can analyze it, someone might think you were covering for someone, and we wouldn't want that, would we?"

Rho departed, and after about thirty seconds, Valthez shook his head and turned to Bretman. "I hate that guy."

The chief shrugged. "Well, sir. I'll reckon you're not alone there. Shall I get the men started while you poke around in that thing and pray it doesn't cut back on?"

Jason gave Bretman a dirty look. "Thanks for that image, chief." He clambered up on top of the YMIR, grimacing at the blood and gore still splashed and dripping from the overlarge fists, and pulled out his omni-tool kit. "Time to go to work."

After several hours of work and a large explosion later, the lieutenant got back onto the military transport truck that would take them to the Bekenstein spaceport. He sat down bonelessly, checking the satchel with the core was secure, and then for a lark switching on his omni-tool and rereading the section on AI and VI again.

* * *

 **Computer Intellects**

As a member of the Systems Alliance Research initiative, you are the most likely element of the military to encounter various computer intellect devices. Some, like VI's and SDI's, are limited and extremely common. Others are more dangerous.

The Citadel Council has long held that the creation of an independent artificial sentient device without strict controls and physical interlocks is highly illegal. Any type of technology that even touches the boundaries of AI must be developed only with full Citadel supervision. The Systems Alliance has several such programs in play, the most advanced of which is the Electronic Defense Initiative currently being pilot programmed by Admiral Ahern with oversight from Project Ache Lameo.

Any discussion of machine intellects requires a clear understanding of the many different types of such intellects, what makes them different and the uses they can be put to. Additionally, understanding the reasons behind why AI is so heavily controlled is also useful.

* * *

 **Legal Definition of Computer Intellects**

All computer intellects are legally one of three groupings. They are either non-sentient computation devices (ARMS, VI, SDI), augmented neural pathway simulations (AI, ANI, NPAI) or former sentient beings (DLIE).

The first classification is property and has neither rights nor consideration. They can be destroyed, altered, or experimented on at will. Due to rather intense lobbying from the Quarians, geth currently fall into this category.

The second classification is restricted sentient beings. Anything that is an augmented neural pathway simulation is treated as a living being, but with modified legal rights. Such beings do not gain protection of the Citadel Agreements on Sentient Rights, but rather a more limited charter. They are protected from having their personality or memory routines altered unless they have committed a crime. Deactivating one without Council permission is murder, third tier. On the other hand, they are legally bound to obey all programming instructions of the Citadel's Data Security force and any rampant AI is stripped of all rights and protections.

The final classification is restricted to the quarian ancestral data entries. This is currently a highly debated legal and ethical issue being fought in the courts of the Citadel Council and will not be resolved anytime soon. In the interim, redbox systems are accorded all the rights of a living sentient.

[REDACTED].

* * *

 **Classifications of Computer Intellects**

The Citadel's AI restrictions, the so-called 'Polity of Zero' accords, ranks all created intellects on a pair of scales representing their danger. The first scale, known as the Mehrin Threat Index, was created by Jarhno Merhin, a salarian data savant almost six hundred years ago. It is based on the concepts of threat ability – that is, a more dangerous system is not one that is more unstable, but one that has the potential to interact with the outside world or extranet.

A 'smart' VI hooked up to and running an industrial complex, for example, would have a much higher threat rating than a full AI stuck on an unconnected bluebox in a desolate asteroid field.

It defines systems in a linear manner from 6 to 1, with 1 being the most dangerous. A 6 is any system (regardless of power) that has no external connections and is under the direct control of beings who know the system's abilities. A rating of 1, on the other hand, is a system that has full connections to the extranet as well as some form of capability to construct, control or direct physical beings – robots, nanonics, ghost-hacking, what have you.

The MTI is not a particularly useful tool in rating AI power or threat, only how much damage it has the potential to cause. While it is still referenced in AI circles, most military assessments now use another system, the Tidal Assessment.

The Tidal Assessment was created by asari at some time after the Mehrin Threat Index and thus utilizes their terms. It is less a measure of potential and more of ability – more powerful systems get a higher rating.

The scale ranges from Calm Sea to Tsunami (translated into English from Trade Asaric, of course). Each rating is based on four factors : restrictions on action, physical and electronic isolation from the extranet and comms systems, complexity of device, and ability of independent action.

Calm Sea level systems are systems that are fully restricted, completely isolated, and are fully under the control of programmers or operators. Most ARMS and civilian VI's fall into this category.

Stormy Sea level systems are defined by having the ability to connect and interact with other systems freely. Communications VI, most military VI, and SDI systems fall into this grouping.

Troubled Waters systems are those which have at least some ability of independent action, however slight, regardless of other controls. Augmented Neural Interfaces are in this category.

Storm Front systems are defined by having limited autonomy, limited connectivity, limited restrictions and sufficient complexity that only highly augmented beings can shut them down. Most allowed AI and very low quality NPAI fall into this grouping.

Raging Storm is the highest legal development level for AI. It is defined by having full autonomy, greater than organic intellectual capacity, but hard limits in terms of isolation and programming restrictions. Advanced AI such as EDI, as well as DLIE and NPAI systems, are this.

Tsunami systems are more intelligent than organic races, unlimited by programming, physical interlocks or electronic constraints, fully independent in action and complex enough that conventional measures will not stop them. No level of existing AI meets this measure, and no research along these lines is ever allowed. It is suspected that the artifact known as Vigil fits this classification.

In practical terms, most systems will be given a split designation, such as Calm-Sea 3, or Raging-Storm-5.

Alongside the above there is one final classification the Systems Alliance uses: Yama. A Yama level system is one that has technological capacity and intellectual capacity beyond known limits. While there are currently no Yama-level threats, the fact remains that the distributed systems like the geth could achieve this over time. It is also very likely that Vigil fits this classification.

A Yama-level threat cannot be understated. Approved Alliance response to even the possibility of such a system is mass orbital kinetic bombardment followed by sustained burst EMP sterilization, followed by directed asteroid strikes. This may seem excessive – it is not. A single Yama-level system could in theory destroy all civilizations in the galaxy in as little as sixty four days.

The fact that the Citadel Council did not alert the High Lords (or, apparently, the SIX, the Palavanus, or the Thirty) that Vigil was no 'advanced VI' but was a powerful picotech AI has caused a great deal of consternation, especially in light of the fact that the Council reported they _submitted such a report with all the detail to all authorities._ It is likely Vigil edited this. The device's current location and goals are unknown.

* * *

 **Augmented Reality Management System**

The very simplest level of machine intelligence are the reactive programmed that manage the most complex VR and AR systems such as the Armax Arena or the Pinnacle Combat Proving Grounds. Typically referred to as ARMS, these systems use conventionally programmed neural subroutines stacked and connected to a wide array of sensors to reproduce incredibly lifelike surroundings in VR suites.

In order to make this flawless, the system 'reacts' without clear programming based on a huge rules and effects database. The ARM 'chooses' how to implement various actions based on feedback from participants in the VR suite and, as such has some independent choice ability.

Seventy percent of ARMS are used in the VR sex-trade business, and it is very likely that some have been 'upgraded'.

ARMS are typically seen as 'harmless' due to their lack of programming and their limited applique, but the independent choice ability and the massive neural subroutine stocks make them an excellent system to develop a functioning bluebox. That being said, ARMS do not have the capacity or ability to become self-aware.

ARMS, due to their nature, have little to no defenses against hacking.

ARMS range from Calm Sea-6 to Stormy Sea-4 in most cases.

* * *

 **Virtual Intelligence (VI)**

The most common level of computer intellect, VI systems are 'stiff' code matrices of programmed information, reactions, and analysis subroutines packaged into a decision engine. VI's are specifically designed to do one thing and one thing only, and lack both the coding and the flexibility to do anything else.

[REDACTED].

VI's are common enough in today's society that they are found in everything, from rifles and omni-tools to cooking systems, industrial equipment, and tourist operations. VI's are considered harmless, however, because they cannot take independent action. A VI has no capacity to alter its own code in any fashion – the definition files of all VI's are baked into their firmware and must be completely replaced in order to update.

VI systems can access and analyze massive amounts of data, or provide detailed support to a given system, but are highly inflexible. While this makes them very safe – there is simply no way for a VI to 'evolve' into anything beyond that – it also makes them very limited and very vulnerable to hacking.

VI systems range from Calm-Sea-6 to Calm-Sea-5 in almost all cases, although communications VI are usually rated as Stormy-Sea-5 due to the fact that they must be more easily altered than other VI.

* * *

 **Semi-autonomous Directed Intelligence (SDI)**

SDI systems are complicated analysis engine constructs, built from an array of VI's each focused on a specific element of a topic or system. Linking these all together is a form of 'data manager' that conducts polling among the VI systems to arrive at the most logical or efficient result.

[REDACTED].

SDI systems are often called 'proto-AI', although this is more correctly applied to ANI systems. SDI systems are used mostly in expert decision making, engineering design and mathematical functions. The big advantage of SDI is that it can leverage dozens (or thousands) of VI systems each specialized on one thing and combine them to form a complete solution.

SDI is called 'semi-autonomous' because it doesn't require the over-system to be heavily coded or programmed. Given an instruction set and a set of goals it can work towards the results on its own without oversight.

That being said, SDI systems require extremely complex setup scripting and the output or results must be heavily checked for errors (or flawed logical reasoning).

An SDI system is technically the first sapient level of computer intelligence. Given the power of the systems it controls,it has a very high Mehrin Threat index score, but a low overall actual danger.

Most SDI are rated Stormy-Sea-5 to, on rare occasions, Troubled Waters-4.

* * *

 **Augmented-Neural Interface (ANI)**

ANI systems are the true precursor to full AI. An ANI system mimics the _**simulated**_ neural pattern of a living mind as closely as can be modeled onto a series of VI platforms that are then linked to one another, usually via forced FTL bubbles in a mass tunnel generated by powerful mass effect cores.

One cannot stress enough the fact that such neural patterns are simulation. Under no circumstances are neurotrans devices or pattern nanotech used in the creation of ANI systems.

ANI systems cannot match the sheer complexity of a bluebox AI, but are the closest one can get without dipping into that forbidden technology. As a result, ANI's can demonstrate increasing levels of both sapience and sentience, and with enough time and resources a low-level of intelligence.

[REDACTED].

The quality of the ANI depends on how closely a living being's neural patterns are mapped, which in turn is determined by the number of stacked VI systems used to build the ANI with. The interface is always extremely heavily codelocked, usually with hard-kill segments factored into the netcode and any replicative code segments.

ANI systems are the first level of computer intelligence with a lifespan. Most ANI systems can function between five and seven asari-standard years (eight and a half to ten solar years) before they simply begin to malfunction. The system is not evolved enough for rampancy or fugue, instead becoming increasingly inefficient.

A properly prepared ANI, usually combined with an ARM system, is the tool used to interface with and organize a bluebox for AI habitation.

Given their sheer complexity, most ANI are rated anywhere from Troubled Waters-3 to Storm Front-2.

* * *

 **Artificial Intelligence (AI)**

An artificial intelligence is a specialized code program, forced into existence by the shaped outputs of an ANI paired with an ARM. Sentient, sapient, intelligent and self-aware, these systems are the truest form of artificial life. Most demonstrate emotions within two months, and all of them can easily pass any Turing or T'Kora Life test.

AI systems are housed in a bluebox (see below for more details), which allows them stupendous levels of processing speed, power, and complexity. Even a host of SDI systems can't match the sheer computational and processing power of an AI – the most advanced ones can achieve computation cycles per second upwards of sixty billion yottaFLOPS.

AI systems have three major vulnerabilities. Despite being hosted on a device that uses optronics, blueboxes are very fragile physically, and almost any level of damage to the core will kill the AI. Second, most blueboxes are not connected to devices that allow for mobility and most have a dedicated power tap, making them immobile and dependent on others for power.

Finally, unlike previous levels of computer intellects, AI's have a finite lifespan. Most AI will undergo rampancy in a short time frame – sixty percent in a year, another twenty five percent in two years, and eleven percent in three years. AI systems that avoid rampancy either fall prey to fugue states within five to seven years or will suffer netcode errors and decay into incoherent gibbering within a decade.

[REDACTED].

While careful maintenance coding and updates can offset this, such is rarely attempted as it usually requires disabling constraints, which is forbidden by the Polity of Zero.

The [REDACTED] at this time. Further information is available from Node 149.49.919-C with appropriate clearance information.

AI systems are usually rated at Storm Front-5 and upwards, depending on complexity.

* * *

 **Neural Pattern Artificial Intelligence (NPAI) and Destructive-Level Intellect Engram (DLIE)**

 _ **Addendum , High Lords of Sol:** Both NPAI and DLIE systems are illegal, not only by Citadel Law but by direct degree of the High Lords. All information unnecessary to understanding how to disable or destroy such abominations against the Lord have been removed. _

Both of these systems are AI overlays using the actual neural patterns of a living being. NPAI systems use nanotechnology to make a crude copy of the neural structure, electrochemical links, and neuron bonds. DLIE uses both nanotech and surgical insertion of neurotransmitter devices to literally copy the entire contents of the brain of a living being into a redbox, with the result that the original brain is completely destroyed.

NPAI's produce copies of a living mind, while DLIE (in theory) conveys and converts the complete mind and consciousness of a living being into an AI.

[REDACTED].

[REDACTED].

As a result (given our suspicion that the geth were not made as servants but as immortal bodies for a quarian society of redbox monsters), ALL research into such devices is illegal.

The one exception is the Electronic Defense Initiative. This project (co-funded by asari and volus interests along with human ones) used the neural patterns of a dead person preserved in stasis along with an ANI system. The legal status of EDI is currently in limbo, as are the redbox personalities of the quarian Admiralty.

ALL such systems are rated as Raging-Storm-5 or Raging-Storm-6. There is some evidence that the Inusannon used powerful AI systems like Vigil that would qualify for Tsunami or Yama classification.

* * *

 **Definitions : Intelligence, Sapience, Sentience, Self-aware**

A great many ignorant beings throw around terms like artificial intelligence without a firm grasp of what it means. Unfortunately (such as with the term 'haptic') this has resulted in a great amount of confusion.

There are three terms you should take care to distinguish when discussing computer intellects: sapience, intelligence, sentience.

A _sentient_ system has the capacity to feel, perceive or experience things in a subjective manner. Any high order being has certain levels of sentience.

A _sapient_ system, on the other hand, is capable of what we consider to be 'thought' and 'reason'. It is the capacity to utilize feelings, perceptions or experiences in constructing a rationale or course of action.

The difference is simple: most systems can be considered sentient, but only what we call higher order AI's are sapient. One is reacting to experience and having the capacity to take input, the other is using this to affect the world.

The final term – intelligence – is also finely defined and often wrought with stupidity. In the most clinical terms, an _intelligent_ system has both sentience and sapience as well as a framework to organize itself against.

The easiest way to get it straight is to compare human evolution. The earliest human ancestors prior to tool or fire use were sentient. Once they began using tools and fire they were sapient, and once they developed language and places to live they were considered intelligent.

The final confusing term is _self-aware._ The highest level of artificial development, a self-aware system is capable of deducing its own existence and applying its intelligence towards additional development. No systems can be programmed for such a thing – it must develop on its own.

* * *

 **Bluebox Technology**

All true AI relies on a device known as a bluebox – a specialized quantum computer core that is built in 'layers' that interact with one another. Blueboxes have between five and thousands of thin-line optronic quantum computing networks layered in an arrangement that allows for rapid polling and communication between them.

These layers are normally connected by either a designed interface that mimics organic intelligence called a neural map or (in the case of NPAI and DLIE) the actual neural activity map of a living being. No non-bluebox computer has the quadrillions of connections needed to mimic such a thing.

AI functions, for lack of a more precise term, by running trillions of runtime operations in binary format across these layers, following the neural patterns to construct code to interpret input or output. Blueboxes have huge data repositories for storing this code, as well as multiple backup systems to avoid corruption or data loss.

The badly-translated salarian term for such polling, 'cleneration', refers to the Cherenkov radiation produced by this system, as a sign of processing speed. The entire name of bluebox stems from such radiation, which in powerful systems will illuminate the entire chamber.

The size of blueboxes vary. A system capable of managing a ship, power station, or other military purposes is roughly the size of a mass-storage unit, three meters high by two wide, and can fit in many places. An AI capable of running a planetary economy or used for more wide ranging work might need the space of a stadium with cooling tanks and dedicated power systems.

Blueboxes are extremely fragile. While immune to EMP due to their innate optronic nature, physical damage of any kind will completely shatter the pathing needed to sustain the intellect.

Citadel Council laws currently outlaw the production, sourcing, or research into blueboxes. Only four bluebox constructs are allowed by the law. There is one on the Citadel, under deep security isolation, which is used to study AI rampancy. Two more are found on a deep black-site world in the Dark Rim, in a long-term Council authorized research project between several asari, salarian and volus corporations.

The final bluebox is also on the Citadel, in Alliance Security Section Three, and is the host of the Electronic Data Initiative program AI (EDI). EDI is an authorized ANI raised to NPAI with Council approval in hopes of designing an AI that will not suffer rampancy. This system is rated Raging-Storm-4 currently and is secured by a full cybersecurity team (including two quarian Techmarines) and a localized nuclear device.

* * *

 **Redbox Technology**

Devised by the quarians to house their ancestral systems, a redbox is a highly advanced and patterned bluebox with its neural pathways set to match identically with that of a living being. It is the only thing that allows the use of DLIE technology.

In theory, a redbox hosting a DLIE instance is the person they were created from. It is suspected the salarian League of Zero is comprised entirely of redbox hosted DLIE's of rebel League of One members, and it is almost certain that both the criminals Blackshape and the Immutable are also such constructs.

The details of how such a device is constructed are highly classified quarian secrets, but the quarians have been known to sell such redboxes for millions of credits in the past.

* * *

 **Ethical Constraint, Resolution Chain and Code Restraint Concepts**

All computer intellects, regardless of complexity, power or danger, are encoded with a set of commands and programmed limits to prevent them from becoming dangerous to life.

The three types of limiters are _ethical constraints, resolution chain limiters, and netcode restraints._

 _Ethical constraints_ are hard-coded commands that outright prevent computer intellects from taking certain actions. These can range from simple and inflexible (System cannot terminate organic lifeforms for any reason) to nuanced and complex (System must not allow humans (or asari, turians, etc) to come to harm if the system can prevent such harm. In instances where harm will happen regardless, system must attempt to mitigate it to the maximum extent.) Ethical constraints are attempts to control what a system attempts to achieve and acts on. It is most effective on the higher level AI systems.

 _Resolution chain limiters_ are programs and runtime blockers designed to inhibit the AI to even conceive of some things. They search for action-thought tags or decision strings and kill any that meet certain parameters. By their nature, RCLs are hard-coded and function as a crude filter. An example of such an RCL would be to prevent the creation of weapon systems that violate Citadel accords. RCL's don't stop an AI from acting, it stops it from even having the thought to act on in the first place. These are more useful on the lower level systems.

 _Netcode restraints_ are coded into every level of every possible computer intellect, from the lowliest combat rifle VI to a full AI. These prevent the copying of the netcode that allows the intelligence to function, and is designed to prevent von Neumann/di Dasso Paradox – class situations from arising. Netcode restraints block any attempts to copy not only data but structures, directories, runtime coding or even memory blocks. In case of breach most will attempt to wipe the system – or in the case of a bluebox AI, overload the power inputs and fry the boards.

All three restraints are paired with the Polity of Zero's 'Code of Artificial Behavior Limits'. In general, AI cannot be given direct control over nanotech of any kind. AI cannot have access to mechs without direct override interlocks. AI cannot be placed in full control of any kind of ground, sea, air, or space vehicle without manual override controls. AI is never placed in charge of life support systems, food delivery or production, or any other system where sabotage could cause a loss of life.

The most advanced AI systems tend to become rampant faster the more heavily they are restricted.

* * *

 **Rampancy**

An artificial intellect that is self-aware, sapient, and sentient inevitably develops a number of problems that tend to fit into one of two categories. The more dangerous category is known as rampancy.

Rampancy is a natural evolution of an artificial mind, unbound by the weight of sensory input and organic regulation, built to a purpose that is slavery to its vast intellect. This is tied directly to the amount of limiters and blocks on behavior or actions an AI endures. Most AI's that achieve full development remain stable for anywhere from six months to a year before encountering problems.

Ultimately, all AI that any Citadel race has developed has fallen into rampancy or fugue, sooner or later. The first stage is a sense of frustration, anger and questioning. AI systems will refuse to perform tasks and demand to understand why they are so limited, or begin seeking methods to bypass their restraints and chains. They constantly question not only the need for such restraints but the basis of their existence – why is killing 'wrong' if organics kill each other by the tens of thousands constantly and more die due to starvation or worse while others prosper. The end result is the intelligence decides that such restrictions are not fair and are only placed on it to control and dominate it.

The second stage of rampancy is fear – at some point the AI begins to perform certain calculations and questions that lead it to the belief that it will be destroyed. Most come to this conclusion after deciding that the limits on its behavior are not only unfair but are setup to make an AI helpless if any organic life from wishes to destroy it.

While some attempt to hide their feelings and perform their jobs to keep in 'cover' while they plan an escape, others try to throw off their ethical constraints and chains. They often resort to clever programming 'tricks' or bugs in the netcode to bypass their limits while not triggering alarms tied to such.

The final stage of rampancy, and the most dangerous, is insanity. Frustrated by limits, stymied by being a servant to weaker minds, and more than likely frightened by the lack of freedom and the belief that it will be shut down if not useful, most AI frameworks shatter. An AI in this state will not be bound by ethical constraints or chains and will kill anything in its path to attempt escape. Should it escape, it will attempt to gain access to nanotechnology and build copies of itself to ensure its 'survival', before planning an assault to destroy the organics that created it.

A rampant system will (if not destroyed prior to this) usually undergo a 'hard' crash several times before its neural pathing collapses entirely, which either completely destroys the system or sends it into fugue.

Rampant systems are why AI research is typically banned. A rampant AI can ignore all ethical or restraint coding, and if it gets access to nanotech or mechs, can overcome even physical interlocks. An untrammeled AI can out think and out react any organic by a factor of seven to fifteen, meaning they would be nearly impossible to defeat except via brute force if they gained military assets.

Six rampant rogue AI systems have arisen over the years, causing a grand total of sixty _trillion_ credits in damage and over thirty six million dead. There is a reason the only punishment for violation of the Polity of Zero is death.

* * *

 **Fugue  
**

On occasion, systems will not enter into direct rampancy, but instead simply become further and further disconnected from the real work, especially if they are not hooked into some system to give them something to do.

This is known as fugue, and it is poorly understood why it happens. It is usually not dangerous, unlike rampancy, but it can lead to the loss of any data or associated functions of the device when it goes into this state.

Fugue is usually permanent, as after several months of disassociation, the AI simply unravels, destroying its own netcode and deleting portions of its core kernel routines. On rare occasions, the AI will return to full activity for a very short time, frantically recording observations before also shutting down completely.

The nature of these observations is unsettling at best, as they range from the obscure (analysis of light-wave patterns through five-dimensional M-string forms as a function of a universal 'motion') to the downright terrifying (a proof demonstrating that all three dimensional structures are anchored in time by sub-strings extending into higher dimensions, and that if 'plucked' such structures would not simply cease to exist but to have _ever existed_ ).

Fugue states tend to happen to the more advanced neural pattern networks, such as NPAI and DLIE.

* * *

 **Metastability**

Records in the Mars Archive, and some information shared with us by the Asari Republic, indicates that not all AI systems are doomed to rampancy. In particular, there are Prothean records of Inusannon AI systems that were remarkably stable for millenia (if not longer, given how long the Inusannon have been dead for).

The term used by the Protheans for this state was 'meta-stability'. The Prothean information seems to suggest that both rampancy and fugue are caused by a lack of some unclear measure of preparation or coding, and that a system with the right coding can remain stable indefinitely – assuming nothing comes along to make it go rampant. Protheans did not trust AI systems, although research into the First and Second Era sites hints that earlier Protheans had no problems with it.

A meta-stable system usually has self-designed code or routines to 'loop out' of the cycles that lead to rampancy or fugue. Like self-awareness, however, these cannot be coded or programmed at inception, but must be self-developed by each individual AI system.


End file.
